The Learning
by Sand and Mercury
Summary: SatAM: Life after Robotnik has proven to only get even more hellish. Pinned against the wall in the face of overwhelming odds, the darker sides in all shall come out as flesh learns to become alike the machine, and machine learns the way of flesh...
1. Dragging The Waters

_Here I go at uploading some SatAM fanfiction again. (after doing this once and removing it, because it was an abortion) This is essentially my first foray into fanfiction for real, and I'll be periodically doing more to both this series and quite possibly branching out into fanfiction for a game that I haven't seen fanfiction for around anywhere; Hexen!_

_This fic is aimed purely at SatAM purists, so don't go in expecting to see appearances of Amy, Shadow, Rouge etc. I may get slack and give Knuckles an appearance (no spoilers) later on._

_Anyway, expect to see updates for both this and the start of that soon._

_Cheers and more beers, that's it, that's all! Enjoy the fic!_

**Disclaimer: **Sonic the Hedgehog and all related characters are the property of SEGA and DiC. Really.

**EPISODE 1 - DRAGGING THE WATERS **(1st revision)

It wasn't the dreary weather in itself that bothered her.

It was the fact that it left nothing to do but sit around, thinking and reminiscing. And reminiscing was certainly not one of Bunnie Rabbot's vices.

Her hindsight took her back to a time when the sky was never green, brown or red, and the only things that flew through it were birds. Cities were calm, welcoming. Her biggest problems weren't of staying alive, or winning wars, but of simply finding something to do with herself all day, or putting up with Antoine's incessant gibbering. And she was free to do as she pleased, and go run off as far and wide as she liked until her legs couldn't go anymore.

Looking down, she reminded herself her current legs could go on forever. But she didn't like taking them around anywhere anymore.

Listening to the surrounding gush of the downpour outside beating on the roof above her, Bunnie sighed; those days were over. Normally she didn't have a problem living with the present, but the past always was the vivid utopia that she'd never see again.

The last few days had been nonevents; beginning with the start of the week, the sun had been shielded with foreboding gray clouds, that soon opened up with a mighty downpour that had turned dirt hills into slippery mud slopes and roads into small canals. According to Rotor's forecast, the weather didn't look to be clearing up anytime either; Knothole was experiencing its first monsoon that Bunnie could remember. Every now and then, a fresh splash of muddy residue would be sprayed upon her front window, only to be washed away by the rain in short order; probably from Sonic.

Bunnie jumped a little when she heard a quick rapping at her door. Reminded of her disgusting half-roboticized state by the metallic clumping of her own feet, she headed to the door, and was surprised when she opened it to see Sonic's nonchalant face staring at her. Her deep frown of before instantly turned to an inviting smirk, and the hedgehog mirrored it.

"Hey there Sugah-hog!" Bunnie smiled as she closed the door behind him. "Uh… you hold there for a sec, and I'll fetch ya a towel."

"Thanks, Bunnie…" Sonic said offhandedly as he waited on the doormat. "Thought you'd appreciate me dropping in just for the heck of it; I can't imagine anything you could be preoccupied with in this cruddy weather--" he cut himself off when he took the time to survey Bunnie's living room, and wondered if he could push that sentence back into his mouth.

Every cupboard in the living room was open, every drawer was out, every tablecloth that normally hid some form of miscellany behind it had been upturned; old boxes were laid out everywhere, with loads of memorabilia and who-knows-what-else sprawled across the place.

"So, ah…" Sonic whistled as Bunnie returned to throw him a towel. He took it and began applying it to render himself from a sopping wet to at least moderately damp state. "Doing a little… winter cleaning?"

Bunnie chuckled. "Ya could say that. What're the others up ta?"

"Beats me…" returned the hedge. "Just being a bunch of hermits and doing their own thing… and I'm going _insane!_" he stressed, staring up in dismay. "I'm made for jucin', not hanging around here beating our brains out when we've still got evil overlords to topple!"

"Aww, I know the feelin', hon…" the rabbit nodded, giving him a playful jab to the arm with her soft arm and relieving him of the wet towel with her steel one. "I'm sure this weather'll let up soon, then y'all can get right back into yer overlord topplin' ways."

"Yeah, that's what I said… three freakin' days ago." Sonic groaned, eyeing the storm outside with disdain. Suddenly conscious of his uncharacteristic whining, he quickly derailed that train of thought and switched tracks. "So anyway… why's this place look like a bomb hit it?"

"Well, with this weather keepin' us all grounded for the time, I thought I'd check out all the ol' sentimental items I had stashed around the place. Come 'ere, I'll show ya." Bunnie said, leading him over to a frayed old box. She reached in, pulled out something of a dark red colour, and tossed it in Sonic's direction. The rodent caught it with some surprise, and after blowing the thick coat of dust off its cover, flipped it open.

"A photo album?"

"Yeah… from before the coup…" Bunnie sighed. "Chuck gave it to me last year when he found it amongst all the personal stuff he'd managed to smuggle out of Robotropolis."

To Sonic, the room seemed to get darker all around as he parted the covers. Moments of history flashed in both the book and his memory, captured and immortalized. Old streets Sonic remembered blasting through in Mobotropolis, the steps leading up to Castle Acorn, with those big statues out the front that had given him the shivers looking up at them, back when he was a kid. Taking a seat beside him, Bunnie looked on. Standing out was a picture of three rabbits, a married couple holding hands in front of Palace Fountain, sitting in between them a remarkably familiar looking bright-eyed child. In front of the three were a small flock of white doves, crowding around a few crumbs that had been thrown for them.

Sonic's gaze shifted repeatedly between Bunnie and the photo. "So… they're your parents, huh?"

"I never found out what happened to them…" the rabbit whispered, eyes shut tightly. When she opened them, they glistened at the memories.

"Relax, Bunnie…" Sonic said in an unusually delicate tone, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I never saw my folks again after ol' 'Buttnik threw down the gauntlet either. I…" He took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly. "I guess they're roboticized by now. But I never really knew for sure… maybe they're still alive, somewhere."

Bunnie's ears perked up after a moment. "Well… maybe there's some way to find out?" she suggested with a sniffle.

"Like what way?"

"Well, Robotnik musta had a record of all us that he roboticized right? We'd just need at get our paws on that and we could find out once and for all if they're really gone or not!" Her eyes shone with apprehension; any number of things could have happened to their parents, and many of those things were… things she'd rather not think about.

"Rockin' plan!" Sonic nodded in approval. "Y'know, if there's any time we should get cracking with that, it's right now. Unc's told Rotor from his hideout that the rain's giving Snootley some major trouble with security. The streets there are flooded!"

Bunnie looked uncertain. "I don't know… it'll be a hurdle for us too though. And heck, with this robotic bod, I can't afford to leave myself out in the weather for too long; I'll start rustin'! How 'bout we pitch this one to Sally? She normally knows best."

"Oh, I know what Sal's gonna say…" Sonic rolled his eyes. "In this weather, she'll think we're insane."

---

"In this weather? You're insane."

"Aw, come on, Sal!" Sonic flailed his arms, stressing his point. "Uncle Chuck said himself that Pinocchio's gonna be the one having trouble dealing with the flooding, with all his security shorting out! What do we have to worry about?"

"How about _drowning,_ for one thing!" the princess retorted. "Look, I see your point about Snively, but it's not as simple as swimming across a pool over there, you know. With all the enclosed spaces in that place, it's something he's sure to capitalize on!"

"How's he gonna do that when his sensors are all busted?" Sonic countered.

Sally put a finger to her lip for a moment, then realizing she'd argued herself into a corner, she took the last resort. "Nicole?"

"Snively's security system has been severely compromised as a result of the flooding. The primary Robotropolis power plants have been damaged. Snively has no opportunity to take advantage of the flooding."

Sonic gave Sally a cheesy grin, content in his victory.

"Don't you want to find out what happened to your mom as well?" he added, the final nail in the coffin.

"No."

Sonic looked at her incredulously. "What? Why not?"

"Because… I…" Sally frowned deeply, but only it linger for a second. "Ugh! Fine, fine. Let's just get going, when you're ready. But don't expect Dulcy to take us over there in this storm."

"Well, Sal…" Sonic smirked, pointing to his feet. "I've got these. So all you two gotta worry about is hangin' on!"

---

Sally had suggested not to let anyone else know they were going, and bring no one else with them, for a number of reasons. Firstly, and most obviously, Sonic was only able to take two with his arms, and with Bunnie's robotic parts being as weighty as they were, even that was a struggle. Secondly, and probably a little more importantly, when concerning the fates of everyone's family, perhaps it was better left a little low-key. If they did manage to find the records, they had no idea what to expect. If, say, they were to discover Tails' parents had been roboticized, breaking it to the kid would be… ugh, she didn't want to think about it. If that were the case, she decided that it'd be better to simply let the kid go on holding some hope that his parents had escaped their fate, however hollow. In any case, it was a terribly demoralizing thought, and she wondered if they should go through with this after all. Well, the others would be able to see for themselves the results when they came back.

Then she thought about her own parents, more to the point, her mother, and wondered if she _could_ go through with this.

All the while, each of her thoughts dissipated one after the other into the reality around her, drenched and beaten down in the weather. Cradled in Sonic's arms as they sped along the muddy forest floor, the relentless drizzle and rain managed to assail her, even through the forest canopy, soaking her fur, and she shivered uncontrollably as the wind whipped all around and through her ears, making the cold all the worse. A coldness that sank right past her fur, through her skin, and into the very marrow of her bones. The only comforting thing was Sonic's arms looped under her legs and under her neck, tightly so as she knew he wasn't going to drop her any time soon. She spared a glance at Bunnie, who was hanging around Sonic's waist. Her eyes were mostly closed to keep the water and wind out, but she still managed a reassuring nod and smile.

Finally, the dim glow of Robotropolis had grown from a haze on the horizon to a deep blue pallor directly above them, and the hedgehog began to slow his pace, closing the distance of a few hundred meters before he finally came to a stop. He visibly buckled as Bunnie dismounted, and he set Sally down, taking a few moments to catch his breath. Bunnie was heavy; it didn't help Sonic either that this was their first mission since Robotnik's defeat at Doomsday, which was months ago. The hedgehog was feeling a little less fit than normal as a result.

"I didn't wanna weigh ya down like that, sugah…" Bunnie said solemnly, apologetically. "Curse this blasted bod o' mine!" She kicked up a bit of mud in frustration with a robotic leg, lamenting its existence for the millionth time.

"No sweat," the hog puffed, "just gimme a sec to charge the ol' batteries, and we'll be juicing."

They'd arrived at a hill overlooking the expanse of Robotropolis. Rotor's observations had been right, of course; Robotropolis was a city built into a mountainous crater, which was now starting to act like a bathtub, muddied waters from the surrounding landscape all being swept down and into the streets. The landscape was beset with an intense fog, the dim blue lights of the city's buildings painting the sky and ground alike with its hue. Dense clouds of rain swarmed and swirled around the buildings like ghosts. And apart from the constant gushing of rain and roaring of wind, the expanse of steel and neon was silent as the grave.

Grabbing her binoculars out for a second, Sally took a closer look at the city, and zoomed in on the flooded streets, using a hand to shield the lens from the rain. Surprisingly, the SWATbots seemed to be continuing with their patrols as usual, but they were getting around on hover bikes, carving gashes in the streets with their wake. They also seemed to have some kind of weird headgear on; it looked like scuba gear. This puzzled Sally; what need would robots have for respiratory equipment?

"Ready to kick it, Sal?" Sonic said, giving her a tap on the shoulder.

"This isn't going to be as simple as it normally is," Sally observed. "All the roads in the city are flooded, and there's SWATbots patrolling them on some kind of hover bikes."

"So what's the strategy?"

"Get ourselves three of those bikes, haul it to the nearest building we can find, and head up. We'll get to Central Command across the rooftops."

"Sounds like a plan," Sonic gave her a thumbs up. "Time to do it to it!"

The three crouched behind some piping aside one of the canals, on a hill of rubble, and waited. It didn't take long before one of Snively's troops came hurtling around the corner, kicking up a spray of water as it slid. They had this one. From their hiding place in the shadows, Bunnie stuck her arm out and extended it by a few meters, coathangering the bot as it sped past. Bunnie's arm buckled from the impact slightly, but its intense build allowed her to stand her ground with little effort. The metallic drone was close to decapitated, mostly severing the head, and the defunct shell fell to into the water, sizzling for a minute as the swirling currents passed its waterproofing through the wound and fried its connections, and finally the disruption made its way to the bots core. It exploded underwater, kicking up some miniature tidal waves.

"Gotcha!"

Sally quickly flipped through the air and took caught onto the newly vacated hovercraft, found the bots weapon still in its holster on the craft, and waited for the next SWATbot to come screaming around the corner, aiming the rifle at shoulder level. It didn't take long until it came. Sally used the iron sights to aim at its head, and pulled the trigger. With a flash and a very loud bang, the bots head exploded in a shower of sparks. The recoil pushed Sally's aim up to near vertical, surprising her with the kick it gave.

It dawned on Sally something was very different here; this was no laser rifle. She'd felled the bot with a rifled shotgun slug.

This worried her. These guns were meant for her and her comrades… Snively wasn't concerned with keeping them alive for roboticization; with this loadout, he was going to exterminate them!

There was no time to ponder this. With a click-clunk, she pumped the next round into the chamber, and as soon as the next SWATbot came hurtling around the corner in the wake of the last one, she fired again, striking the bot in the chest. The blast lifted it off the bike, and it exploded in midair, hissing as pieces of flaming debris hit the water.

The job was done. They'd procured three bikes, and there was no telling when the next bot would be on its way around. "Alright, grab a bike and let's go!" Sally ordered.

The three hammered it along the canals, scanning the skyline above them for a suitably tall building. There were plenty, but there was a problem.

"Sally-girl, these buildings are too far apart! We cain't get from one to the next!" Bunnie shouted over the sounds of the hover bikes' motors and rain.

"You're right…" Sally threw back. "We'll just have to push straight for HQ on the streets!"

"What about the bot patrols?"

"We blast through 'em!" Sonic answered.

"We avoid them." Sally countered. "We can't risk fighting these things!"

"What's the deal?" Sonic asked, confused. "Juice and reduce, it's the S.O.P.! What's so different this time?"

Sally checked one more time, not really wanting to believe it. Opening the shotgun's chamber for a second, she checked. In blue plastic casings, they were labeled 12 gauge rifled slugs. One of those to any limbs would mean amputation; one of them to any vitals would be instant death, no two ways about it. Time to break it to them.

"They're using live rounds!"

The hog's heart jumped, as the sickening revelation Sally had gotten from the news hit him as well. The feeling of danger and emergency grew more intense.

Sally was right. There was no room for error. A hit on the business end of these things didn't mean incapacitation and capture. It meant game over. For good. Snively was raising the stakes from what his portly uncle had set considerably; keeping the Freedom Fighters alive, evidently, was nowhere to be seen on the list of priorities of Robotnik's successor. There'd be some major explaining to do to the others when they got back to Knothole.

Seeing the wake left by the other SWATbots' vehicles made things a little easier. With the towering grandeur of the dome of Central Command as their compass, the trio zigzagged among the buildings, doing their best to avoid the patrols, and staying out of the glare of the numerous spotlights that peppered the streets. A few times they came close to being discovered, but with the weather affecting visibility as it was, they were able to slip away.

Finally, against the walls of Central Command, they reached their destination intact. Bunnie couldn't help but be amused that they'd stopped a few meters _above _the door they normally used to enter the facility. Looking up, there was an outcropping, and with the flooding providing all the elevation they needed to reach it at this point, the three easily reached up and hauled themselves onto the edge, found a maintenance door, and took it inside.

"Finally, we're outta that blasted rain!" Bunnie said, relieved, as she shook vigorously to clear some of the wetness from her waterlogged fur.

Sally slicked back her wet maroon hair and hefted her newly acquired weapon. "Okay, I gather we'll need a map to find the way to the computer station in this place?"

"Get real," Sonic smirked. "With all the visits we've paid this joint in the past few years, I know this place better than the back of my hand."

Much as Sonic hated it, the newly established life-or-death nature of combat with Snively's minions called for stealth over acrobatics. Hugging the walls to slip under security cameras and bolting whenever they heard the sound of foreign footsteps, they cautiously made their way to the old Robotropolis data vaults. A locked door stood between them and the room, but Bunnie forced it open, frying circuits and stripping cogs in the door's machinery with a loud, metallic grind.

In the dim blue spot lighting, they came to it; in the center of the room sat a massive computer console, thick data cables extending from it to the ceiling, lights of servers and hard drives flashing left and right with activity.

"Alright, Sal." Sonic whispered. "Do your thing, and then we can juice on outta here!"

Sally nodded, and unclipped Nicole from her boot, then plugged her into the nearest access port. "Nicole, run a scan of this system for records of roboticized Mobians."

"SEARCHING."

A minute passed, as Nicole silently combed the data banks for the relevant information Sally requested. Sonic tapped his foot, impatiently. "I'm waaaaaiiitiing!"

"ONE ENTRY QUALIFIES. FILE ID #53696307: MOBIANRECORDS DTB-F. DOWNLOAD?"

"Go ahead." Sally answered.

"DOWNLOADING, SALLY… COMPLETE."

"Great, now let's book!" Bunnie exclaimed.

"YOU SHALL BE GOING NOWHERE." a voice intruded upon the room through the Command Center's announcement system, a metallic, female voice, making all three Freedom Fighters jump.

"Nicole!" Sonic scolded.

"THAT WAS NOT ME, MY MAIN HEDGEHOG." Nicole answered, before Sally closed her up and clipped her to her boot again.

"Then who was it?" Bunnie asked, her voice a little shaky.

"YOU, INTRUDERS, HAVE CAL-(callously)-LOUSLY ACCESSED MY SYSTEMS WITHOUT MY PERrMISSIiON. I NOW HAVE YOUR CURreNT LOCATION. YOU MAY KEEP YOUR USELUSELESSESS PIECE OF DATA WHICH YOU HAVE _RIPPED_ FROM ME… BUT YOU WILL NOT LIVE LONG ENOUGH TO REVEL IN YOUR (fail) FRUITLESS VICTORY." The voice of the computer jumped, beeped and glitched like a corrupt, malfunctioning machine. With every word, ran layers of thousands of other words and voices in soft, maddening undertones. It spoke with a piercing intensity and volume that filled their heads like only a machine could.

It seethed with a malevolence that no machine should ever be able to harbor.

"What the hoo-hah WAS that!?" Bunnie shrieked, now completely freaked out.

"Whatever it was, it's time we get out of here!" Sonic said.

"YOU WILL REMAIN WHERE YOU ARE. YOUR ARBITRARY (rbtrry) _EXIST_ENCE CANNOT BE ALLOW(w)ED TO CONT(s)INUE. YOU CANNOT BE aaaaaaaAaaALLOWED TO LIVE ANY LONGER. YOU MUST BE EXTERMINATED. (You must. die.)"

The clamour of numerous metallic feet against metallic floor panels could be heard.

"SWATbots!" Sally gasped.

Sonic readied himself. "Sal, Bunnie, grab on. Time to juice it loose!"

They shot out of the room and through the halls in a blaze of blue, so fast that the floor panels were left glowing with a dull red. Gunfire filled the halls as the SWATbots opened fire. Walls were ripped apart in the carnage, lights were shot out, circuitry was destroyed under a hail of lead. But none of the many bullets fired found their target, many of the bots knocked over where Bunnie stuck her robotic arm out along the way. In seconds, Sonic had carried Sally and Bunnie out of the facility and into the weather, where their hover bikes were waiting. They dropped directly onto them from the outcropping of the building.

"Punch it guys!" Sally said, hitting the starter button and feeling the engine whirr into life.

"Bummer majoris!" Sonic growled, as Sally and Bunnie prepared to take off.

"What is it?"

"My bike's been busted!"

"Then jump on mine! Hurry!" Sally shouted. Sonic complied, and they took off quickly. Their delay nearly cost them their lives, as a volley of bullets and shells filled the air with steam and splashes where their targets had been not even a second ago.

Klaxons bathed buildings in flashes of red, and the screech of alarms filled the air. Two SWATbots were in hot pursuit, opening fire with their weapons.

"They're shooting at us!" Bunnie screamed.

"Sonic, take the controls! I'll take care of these guys!" Sally ordered.

"You got it," he replied, flipping over Sally and taking her place. Sal pivoted on her seat to face behind them, at their attackers, and took hasty aim before sending a few grams of hot metal into the first bot's chest. It exploded into a thousand pieces instantly, sending its bike careering into a wall, joining its rider in a massive fireball.

Click, clunk. Shell number two loaded. Sally took aim again.

She felt a dull pain at the shoulder. A bullet had glanced her arm, not penetrating to do any serious harm, but it bled and stung so much she cried. The reflex caused her to drop her gun into the water.

"I'm hit!"

Sonic turned to look at her, both scared and enraged. "No!"

"I'm okay, but I lost my gun!"

Sonic gritted his teeth. "Take over, Sal! I'll dust this piece of junk!" With that, he left Sally's bike and leapt into the air, going into a super-spin as he flew, whipping rain everywhere like a sprinkler. He collided with the remaining SWATbot at full force, sawing it clean in half, and leapt instantly from the hover bike just before it exploded to the building they were speeding past. At this velocity, he kept himself above the water by running along the wall of the building. When he ran out of building, he leapt from one side of the street to the other and continued along the next building, losing next to no momentum. Even without a vehicle and not even any ground to run on, Sonic gained more and more speed and eventually sped past his companions. Within a few minutes, they'd escaped the inner city and reached the 'shoreline', hitting it fast enough to be practically flung from their bikes. Bunnie and Sally skidded through the mud for a bit before stopping, and Sonic rolled as he finally returned to terra firma. Without even thinking, they hauled ass up the hills and into the forest, not even thinking to slow down before they'd disappeared for nearly a kilometer into the thick woods.

---

It was only the next day that the rain had finally begun to lighten, and cracks of light began appearing in the gray blanket above. Sally welcomed the golden evening rays, watching them flood through the window of her hut.

Her arm still hurt, but she'd seen Rosie, who'd sterilized the wound and bandaged it up. It would heal quickly enough, but it was going to leave her out of action for a while.

They'd explained the situation to all the others. Snively's penchant for ballistic firearms, the computer that had spoken to them. Rotor and Chuck both promised they'd look into the computer thing, and tell them all what he'd turn up.

But for now, there were more pressing matters.

In front of her, on her desk, sat Nicole. Sonic and Bunnie looked over each of Sally's shoulders in nervous anticipation. This was it… finding out what had really happened to their parents. For better or worse, they'd be in the dark no longer.

"Alright…" Sally whispered, taking a deep breath. "Who's first?"

"Bunnie," Sonic suggested. "She's the one that wants to know the most. Let's not keep her waiting."

Sally's hands shook. "Nicole. Search database Mobian Records for entries of 'Rabbit'."

"SEARCHING… COMPLETE. TWO ENTRIES QUALIFY."

The results silently appeared on the screen.

RABBIT, CLAIRE - ACCOUNTED FOR - ROBOTICIZED

RABBIT, JACOB - NOT ACCOUNTED FOR

Silence shrouded everything. She couldn't breathe. "Mom… Dad..." She closed her eyes as tight as she could, but it didn't help. Years and years worth of tears escaped, and she was kept upright only by her unfeeling legs.

"Oh, Bunnie…" Sally whispered as she got up and embraced her friend. "They're not gone forever. We'll find a way to get them back. I promise. Your dad's still out there somewhere. We'll find him, too…"

"Ah… I hope so, Sally-girl…" Bunnie said, her face buried in Sally's shoulder. She remained that way for a moment, but quickly sniffed and looked up. "Enough of this. At least I finally know now. S…Sugah-Hog's turn."

"Nicole," Sally began, with more than a little hesitation. "Search database Mobian Records for entries of 'Hedgehog'."

"SEARCHING… COMPLETE. TWO ENTRIES QUALIFY."

HEDGEHOG, JULES - ACCOUNTED FOR - ROBOTICIZED

HEDGEHOG, BERNADETTE - ACCOUNTED FOR - ROBOTICIZED

"Sonic…" Sally said. "I'm sorry…"

"It doesn't matter." Sonic said, eyes closed, shoulders slack. "We just gotta find them and turn 'em back. Things'll turn up. As long as I'm around, the will." He grinned a little at his own words.

"Yeah… they will…" Sally agreed quietly, and went to close Nicole up.

"What about you?" Bunnie asked. "What about your mother?"

"I… it… it can wait." Sally gulped. "It's getting on. I'm calling it a night early. Maybe you guys should too…"

"Alright." Bunnie said, giving her friend one last hug before turning to exit. She was gentle; they were all fragile with their experiences and what they'd found out. "Goodnight." With that, she made her leave.

Sonic stood and looked at Sally, arms folded.

"What?" she asked him.

"What's the deal with you? How come you didn't run a search for your own folks? Don't you care?"

This comment angered Sally. "Look! I didn't want to go through with that stupid mission anyway. You got what you wanted. Just leave it at that! I… I do care. But I don't have to look through some records to know where my mother is. I already know… ugh, just look for yourself." She opened Nicole up again and walked away, and threw herself on her bed, looking at the ceiling with a vacant stare.

For a moment, the hedgehog thought twice about pressing on. But he shrugged the thought aside. He wanted to know. His curiosity wouldn't let him leave Sally's hut until he knew.

"Nicole," he said slowly, parroting Sally's words from a few minutes ago. "Search database Mobian Records… for entries of 'Acorn'."

"SEARCHING… COMPLETE. TWO ENTRIES QUALIFY."

ACORN, MAXIMILLAN - NOT ACCOUNTED FOR

ACORN, ALICIA - ACCOUNTED FOR - DECEASED

His throat seized. His heart rate took a nose dive. He felt his veins throbbing. He wanted to ask how, and why. But he already knew the why. There wasn't one. There never was a "why" in war. A "why" in loss, a "why" in hatred.

And the how… didn't matter.

He turned around, very slowly, his bravado, his confidence, his _faith_, completely shot. "Sal?"

"Yes." was all the reply was. Not a question, a statement.

"I'm so sorry…"

A minute passed. Silence strangled the air.

"It… it's too late to do anything about now. I can't change what this war has done to me… us." she said flatly to the ceiling. Then she raised her head a bit and looked at Sonic, and despite atmosphere, managed a smile.

"We still have what matters, among us."

Sonic spared a glance out the window, and watched a few white winged birds cut a trail across the dying light of day.


	2. The Fault Of The Flesh

_Hey dudes. Finally I have gotten on my coit and gotten around to uploading this on Those of you that visit the FUS and SMS forums may already be familiar with this series that started, and know this episode by a different name. The content hasn't actually changed._

_If you've been paying attention you'll see here that this series is indeed in an episodic format, just like the show. You can read these chappies in any order, though naturally it's going to make more sense if you go chronologically. I do have a backbone story running through these, but much of the contents are exclusive and modular so you can chop and change them around a bit if you want. Though this won't be much use as there's only two chapters at the moment anyway, but when I finally get around to doing more you'll see._

_Anyway, enough from me._

**EPISODE 2 - THE FAULT OF THE FLESH**

"Technology…" he had heard his uncle mumble when he thought he was alone. "Technology… shall be the second coming."

Snively reclined in his throne, Robotnik's throne, and let out a long, deep sigh. So much had changed. It still felt like only yesterday that he'd been the scrawny underdog that did nothing but take orders, never questioning, never hoping for any reward but his continued existence. He could never appreciate such a position of oppression and hopelessness, but it was only when Julian was finally defeated that the many realized that the old man had left a large pair of boots to fill. But through years of observation, Snively had easily picked out the portly dictator's flaws, and planned on addressing them first and foremost. Robotnik, for all his mechanical and scientific genius, really didn't seem to have the right mind toward things. He was so largely passive in his gestures towards the Freedom Fighters that for a second Snively wondered if he ever even really knew what he was doing.

Snively 'The Great' chuckled to himself at the thought. Julian was a scientific prodigy… a prodigy that never used his head.

Through much observation, Snively had learned that perhaps the best defense was a good offense… strike at the enemy hard and fast, before they did the same. Robotnik was weak. He'd been happy to amble around and make meager, futile attempts to ward off Sonic and co's occasional pot shot attacks. The only reason he survived, and the only reason Robotropolis still stood as it did, was because the Freedom Fighters actually let him walk away mostly unscathed. Their mercy, along with Robotnik's bumbling, was the reason this pointless scuffle had continued for years as it had, instead of perhaps a month or two as it should have.

Yes, he thought. The Freedom Fighters were weak too. Their weakness was mercy. Through much observation, Snively had learned that to relent was to leave oneself open. To forgive was to suffer. Soon, he would finish the Freedom Fighters, and the expansion of his empire would begin.

But there had been a problem. To mobilize an effective attack force would be difficult under no supervision but his own. He had no effective advisors. Well, not until now.

Over the years, Snively had kept a secret, something that he'd never reveal to anyone. It never left his quarters. It never left his mind. He'd kept it hidden with every opportunity. His love, his creation. Robotnik had started his work on her, abandoned her half way through, but Snively salvaged her and nursed her affectionately. He spent every waking spare minute with her. Thousands of hours and millions and millions of lines of code. But now, he'd done it. She was as full and complete and beautiful and perfect as he'd always seen in his imagination. He knew it would come to this eventually, the chance to show her to the world. She was to be the queen to Snively's throne. To be with him, and all around him.

Robotnik's old angel that he'd allowed to fall from grace. Snively christened her Ariel. The angel of the air. She would never leave his side.

"And now, it is time to awaken, my queen…" Snively grinned in the darkness. Before him, on the main view screen of Robotnik's old war room, was the results of Ariel's preliminary pre-launch checks. All came up positive. It had been a lot of work, but Snively's dedication had turned every red light to green, and every "Failed" to "Passed". The sentient being he'd created would see and know everything, advise Snively when he wished, and be with him every step of the way as he crushed every living thing on the planet to mush. She would never relent, even when Snively did.

"Sir," a robot called in monotone as it entered the room. "A disturbance has been detected."

Snively grimaced. Of all the times for those rodents to intrude it had to be now… "Yes, what is it?"

"Three hover bikes have been reported stolen, and three SWATbots are unaccounted for."

"The Freedom Fighters…" Snively clenched his fists, dismayed that he'd be delayed from the monumental birth of his queen a second longer than he needed to be. On second thought… perhaps this would be the perfect opportunity to put her through her paces. A little hasty maybe, but it would help to break her in. A sly grin crept into his face, and he turned.

"Launch program Ariel." he announced.

Outside, the sky glowed a deep, soft blue, beyond the pouring rain.

---

_One week later_

Reverie.

Princess Sally smiled contentedly to herself as she allowed each of her senses to take in everything around her. She sat perched up against the trunk of a pine tree, at the edge of a plateau looking out toward an expansive glen full of lush greens and sparkling blues, met by white rock that comprised the surrounding mountains. A river at her side flowed out this way from within the Great Forest, over the edge of the plateau and into a vast lake in the valley below. She could hear the gushing of the water as it flowed into the steam at the bottom. The occasional call of one of Mobius' many bird species accentuated the peace around her. The smell of pine and recent rain was comforting, and soft breeze caressed her body, and made gentle waves in the long grass while the midday sun's mild warmth seemed to sink right through her skin and into her bones. The feeling of a rare peace swirled throughout her, and she drank deeply in it, coveting every second as it escaped from her.

It was these mesmeric times that Sally remembered Mobius was still a stunningly beautiful place to be, and these were the moments she would always be able to look back and remember. She never forgot that she was lucky to be able to enjoy these times, and there were many who could not. Her mother and father, the queen and king of her homeland, sprang to mind.

Sally's smile quickly faded.

What she longed for, more than anything else in the world, was the release of her father from that dreaded void. But still, quite few things stood in the way. Most obviously, there was no way for the Freedom Fighters as of yet to create their own void portal. Secondly, she'd learned Max Acorn couldn't exist in Mobius anymore before crystallization took effect. And, somewhat more disturbingly, was that she'd been told that Julian had been transported into the void as well; if she attempted to release the king, the dreaded overlord Robotnik would be sure to follow. They'd be back to square one. And who knew what terror Naugus would bring upon the lands, if he had not already figured some way out by himself?

She shook her head. Hopefully, the solutions would come in time. They had better, she thought. If not… she did not know how long her heart would go before it just broke down. With a sigh, she tried to return her thoughts to the scene around her, focusing on the sound of running water.

Another sound came from over it… a voice. "Aunt Sallly! Aaauunnt Saaaally! Are you out here?"

"Tails?" she called back. "I'm over here."

She heard the whirring of the kitsune boy's tails before she saw him. "Aunt Sally, you gotta come back to Knothole! Rotor got a message on his computer… he said it's urgent!"

The solutions would come later… in the meantime, she had new problems to contend with.

---

Rotor looked up at Sally as she swung the workshop door open from his computer screen, providing the only light in his darkened workspace; a dull neon blue.

A loud clang echoed bounced off the walls in every direction, assailing the ears like bats as Sally tripped over piece after piece of machinery Rotor had strewn about the room, all in pitch darkness. "Ach! Awfully dark in here, Rotor… I'll get the light."

"Sorry, it's a bit of a mess Sally, but leave them off, thanks. I've got some light-sensitive components in here for one of my projects. Alright, did Tails tell you about the message Lupe sent us?"

"He said it was urgent, that's all. What's the situation, Rote?" In the dim light, Rotor watched Sally's expression grow concerned, as she scanned over the message on Rotor's computer screen, which displayed a single file name; DSIG1. "Seems out of character for one of the Wolfpack to send us a message over a computer."

"It's a distress call. Audio." Rotor told her, then he clicked a button at the bottom of the screen, a triangle; play. Sally prepared for the worst.

"Knothole Freedom fighters, this is Lupe of the Wolfpack, reporting from Robotropolis." Lupe's voice played back, calmly, but holding an air of withheld panic amidst the sounds of gunfire and pained yelps; her comrades. "We were on a supply raid, but we've been trapped. The power is fluctuating and we are being beset by a large number of… I don't know what they are… Robotropolis appears to be under attack from an unknown force, possibly from the _inside_… they seem to be some sort of SWATbot-Mobian hybrids! We require your support as soon as possible! We have multiple casualties here, please assist!"

A loud explosion acted as the exclamation mark, cutting whatever transmission there was left to give short at that point.

"So, what do you think?" Rotor asked.

Sally scowled deeply. "There's no time to think. Get on the horn, call everyone out, tell them to gather whatever equipment we can! Whatever's going on over there, we've got a Wolfpack to rescue!"

---

The streets of Robotropolis blew empty with a ghostly howl, and the endless clamor of the shuffling of two SWATbots on their routine patrols. In their programming and sensitive audio detection equipment, they were made to recognize the slightest nearby scuffle that was out of place.

"AUDIO SPIKE DETECTED. POSSIBLE INTRUDER IN AREA. ADJUSTING SONICS." one of them spouted off.

"Audio… check!" a smug voice came and went in a flash of blue, and before the bot could place the source of the disturbance, it was already propelled into the air by a strong kick, and followed up in mid-air with a devastating head-on spindash attack to the chest, sending the bot into a massive explosion of flame and scraps of partially melted metal in an instant.

"Spikes…" Sonic admired his thick spines that he'd used to cut through the bots armor like a chainsaw through wood. "…check!"

Without skipping a beat, he mounted himself high up where he'd made contact with the nearby wall and propelled himself at the second SWATbot as hard as he could, driving his heel into its head and pummeling it to the ground. He promptly rolled out of the way as its circuitry fried, sparks crackled around the bot like that of a crystal ball. After a moment, the bot went up in a fireball, leaving nothing but a charred crater in the ground.

"Sonics… of course." the hog smirked, then turned around to the empty street he'd come hurtling through before. "Okay, gang. We're clear. Come on out."

From the nearby darkened alleys, Sally, Bunnie and Rotor emerged, and briskly made their way over. Finding the two dropped SWATbot weapons on the ground, Rotor scooped them up, and threw one in Sally's direction. "Sally, we should hang onto these guns. I'll be able to study them when we get back to Knothole, and maybe make our own version to use against these guys."

"Will do," Sally acknowledged, then reluctantly checked to see if her weapon was loaded. "I'm really not fond of guns, though." she commented, with a trace of disgust.

"Better than trying to take these tinheads on with your bare hands, Sal." Sonic shrugged. "Alright, so this block is where Lupe's message came from?"

"I traced the transmission to around this area," Rotor said. "I couldn't pinpoint where, exactly, but you know Snively's going to have a PA system. We'll hijack that and find out where they are."

"Uh…wouldn't _they _be able to hear what _we're _saying through that thing as well?" Sonic asked, his head cocked to the side.

"Mmm, good point, Sonic…" Sally nodded. "We'll have to think of something else."

"Worry about that when we're inside, fellas." Bunnie shrugged the debate off, flexing her robotic arm. "Time to see what the hoo-hah's goin' on in here, and bust some SWATbot tails while we're at it."

Sonic and Bunnie, the power section of the team, led up the group as it paced the Robotropolis complex's suspiciously empty corridors. The floors and ceilings seemed to be comparatively pristine for Robotropolis, the metallic floors giving off a subtle reflective gleam that was a little hard on the eyes in the dense neon lighting; ultraviolet. Shelves of all kinds of exotic plants lined the walls, and the pumping of water and hydraulics equipment could be heard somewhere within the belly of the building. Sonic sniffed, and smelt the thick aroma of fresh paint.

"What is this place?" Sonic wondered aloud as they slowly paced the halls.

"Hydroponics." Rotor answered, simply. Sonic said no more.

The group stopped cold when the dull sound of groaning metal came from deeper inside the complex, violent tremors turning the walls to feeling like soft fur as they vibrated. The lighting flickered to pitch black for a second, then returned to its normal state. As they continued into the labyrinth, the power surges and heavy tremors continued.

"I've got a bad feeling about this… very bad." Sally quivered. Much as she despised the cold piece of metal she held in her hands, she tightened her grip on it all the same. With her other hand, she reached for Nicole, and flipped her open with a flick of the wrist. "Nicole, draw up a map of the way we've come so far, and if you can, draw up some guesses on the layout of this place."

"ACKNOWLEDGED, SALLY. BEGINNING LOGGING."

Bunnie realized her breathing was starting to quicken, and willed it to regulate itself. "Totally empty… no SWATbots, no workers. Nothin'… shouldn't there be _something _around to try and stop us? Heck, there ain't even any snapdragons in 'ere." She caught herself off-guard with her own sarcasm, and cackled a little despite herself.

"It was way easier getting in here even, easier than it should be." Sonic seconded. "Whatever's going down here, I think down is where we're be going." he added, pointing to a zig-zag stairwell.

The group silently made their way down the stairs, deeper into the hydroponics complex, but stopped cold again. The lights flickering had been growing increasingly frequent for the last several minutes, but now the main lighting sizzled loudly as it burned out completely, making everyone jump. Rotor figured out the event to a simple power failure; he imagined power relays back in who-knows-where going up in smoke and a shower of sparks. He applied rational explanations to everything as they went along, because he didn't like the idea of not having an explanation for any of this.

Sally found herself straining to keep her voice in check. "Stay close, guys, and keep your eyes open. We don't know what we might be about to walk into." Checking over her weapon, she found the shotgun's flashlight, that cast a thin cone of light into the surrounding black. Rotor saw her example and followed it, flicking on his own light.

At least, aside from the pale beams cast by the two scatterguns, the purple aura from the plants artificial sunlight systems provided enough illumination to see what they were bumping into, but with the main lights fried, the shroud of darkness obscured any hope of seeing beyond ten meters. Her neck hair stood up on end, as she got the feeling of something watching them from the darkness, their gaze feeling her out, icy fingers running down her back… and they'd not even run into a single other soul yet, living, roboticized or otherwise.

After a few more minutes of pacing the claustrophobic dark tunnels, a shrill screech rang through the tunnels.

"What the?" Sally gasped, instinctively dashing up against Sonic, who pulled a protective arm around her shoulders.

"Sounded like a microphone being pulled online," Rotor said, frozen in place. "Listen."

A crackling voice bounced off the walls, making their ears ring. "Is there anyone that can hear me? This is Parias of the Wolfpack, we're being wiped out by some kind of mutant hybrid robots… I've never seen anything like it! We've barricaded ourselves at the basement of hydroponics. We're down to three… if anyone is out there listening, we need help right away! I don't know how long we'll be able to hold them off now. Wolfpack out!"

"We have to hurry!" Sally gasped.

"Relax," Sonic kept his tone uncharacteristically serious, "Look out for ourselves first, take it as slowly as we need to. We'll get 'em."

A raspy hissing noise erupted near Sally's ear, and she felt something hot brush up against her neck.

"Ah!" She screamed as she leapt up against the opposite wall, and trained her weapon on the source of the noise, nerves at the breaking point. Sonic, Bunnie and Rotor jumped at the noise and turned toward it, ready for anything.

The hissing continued. Steam erupting from a broken pipe. The group let out a prolonged sigh of relief, and continued onward.

The quartet quickened their pace, heartbeats racing, checking every intersection with their lights, left, right, clear, proceed, rinse and repeat. Each couple of times, they hit a stairwell and descended deeper down, Nicole keeping track of their progress and mapping it out in her electronic brain accordingly for later reference. Bunnie's ears picked up a pattern in the dense drone of water piping around them, so thick it felt like her head was trying desperately to keep the floodgates closed and keep her brain dry of its maddening hum. The drone was rising and falling, slowly and idly, like a sleeping animal. Sensing the idea that the comparison brought, she checked her surrounds, running her hands along the wall. The ceilings dripped with water for plant feeding. The scaly metallic walls had beads of moisture running down them, from microscopic pores everywhere. Her feet made soft, squelchy noises as she paced the tunnels.

Suddenly, she felt sick to the stomach. This place was _alive_. It was some kind of pseudo-organic, neon beast, and they'd let it swallow them right up, pacing their way through its stomach. Even now, the thought hit her so hard she recoiled, jumped, squirmed; the zig-zag pattern they were taking through the plant halls was no different to the digestive tract of an animal. The wolves had unwittingly stumbled down the same path they were now taking, and who knew what kind of mess could be made of them once the breakdown was complete.

She licked her lips. The breakdown had already begun. Fear was the acidic agent, sinking into her skin, peeling away at her flesh, layer by layer. And she knew the others were feeling it too. Then something else hit her.

"Something's wrong," she said, stopping in her tracks. The others turned to her, looks vacant. "The Wolfpack radioed us saying they wound up in this mess from a _raid_, right? There ain't no supplies I've seen in here 'sides greenery. What is there in this monster they'd wanna go so deep to find?"

"Yeah…" Sonic said, "Either there's something damn worthwhile at the end of this tunnel, or we're being taken on a ride."

"Some ride," Rotor commented.

"Maybe we should get our hides topside again and rethink this stunt," Bunnie suggested. "I cain't shake there's someone like Snively pullin' the strings here."

Sally clenched her teeth. "It's a chance I'm willing to take. Lupe and the Wolfpack were there for us when we needed them. I'm going to get to the bottom of this thing, no matter what. You want to chicken out now, fine. You're not stopping me." she kept her shotgun at shoulder level, breathing regular, voice level, but inside her heart felt like it was going to explode, and she couldn't keep the gloss out of her eyes.

"This place gives me the willies, big time…" Sonic groaned, "but there's no way we're leaving you down here. Let's do this."

Without another word, the group continued, keeping close enough to hear each other's breathing. Soon, the repetitive purple-lit tract emptied out into a larger cavern. It was even darker in here. The plant lights were flickering on and off, bound to go out at any moment, and giving the area a maddening strobe effect.

"SALLY," Nicole piped up from Sally's boot, "IT IS ESTIMATED THAT WE ARE NEARING THE BOTTOM FLOOR OF THE HYDROPONICS FACILITY."

"Great," Sally sighed, and shivered. "I'm not keen on going too much farther in this place. Those wolves must be close by, now."

"Hold it!" Rotor whispered, training his spotlight on a dark shape in the strobe. "I see someone!"

A black silhouette could be seen ahead in the dim, flickering distance. Its shape suggested a muscular build, pointed ears sitting atop the head.

"One of the Wolfpack!" Sally exclaimed, taking a step forward. "Parias? Lupe?"

It didn't reply, but took a staggered step toward her in response.

"It's alright, sugah…" Bunnie said quietly, "We're here to help y'all. This way, hon…"

Sally saw it as soon as she dared to shine the torch in the wolf's direction… the giant, pulsating lump of gray wrapped around its arms and neck.

The thing growled, and flicked its wrist, evidently activating something. Sally watched something green sizzling and crackling at its fingertips.

---

"I am not understanding any of them!" Antoine stressed as he walked down the forest path along with Tails. "I am always doing my best and helping my princess for every mission. Why does she continue to let that fuel hedgehog lead her on some dangerous trail all the time? Without even the thought to tell me?"

Tails looked at him out the corner of his eye, kicking a particularly round-shaped rock along as he walked. "Maybe 'cause you do a better job of standing guard while they're on a mission?"

"Your naivety amuses meh," Antoine sneered, then sighed slowly. "If only it were that simple, enfant… the princess seems to simply not see anything in me worth taking along with her. I try to be strong, Bunnie steps in. I try to be clever, Rotor is already done. I try to be brave, suave…"

His eyes narrowed. "…and that hedgehog _écume _is always there. They see me as useless, talentless! They do not even _see _me!"

Tails raised an eyebrow, a little confused by the coyote's somewhat creative twisting of the English language, but got the gist. "Well… if they're all good at something, find something you're good at too."

Antoine looked at the kid, surprised at the maturity he carried in a voice that didn't sound mature at all. "Like what?"

"I don't know," Tails shrugged, and turned his head to the Great River, where they were approaching the bank. "There's gotta be _something _you're good at."

"Cooking?

"No," the kit laughed, "Something more important than that." With one last run-up, he belted the rock with his foot and sent it flying in the direction of the river, and watched it fall in, kicking up a miniature spray of water as it entered.

Antoine stared up at the sky, beginning to turn orange as the day's light began to fade, carrying something foreboding in it, a map of things to come etched into it by some ethereal hand. "I am worried about them. Though they care not for me, I worry anyway…"

Tails laughed. "They're okay. They always are. Sonic will make sure of that."

---

"Get away from that thing!" Sally shouted. She threw both her arms out and backed up, pushing everyone along with her.

"What on Mobius happened to him?" Rotor asked.

"I don't think he's in the mood for telling us," Sonic responded. "Time to dust this guy and find those wolves!"

"Watch out!" Bunnie screamed, but Sonic was already out from behind cover, charging the thing.

It raised its hand and out from its fingers shot a massive lance of luminescent green energy, bathing the whole room temporarily with its glow. It whipped across the room like a whip, cutting several of the room's tall plants in half. Sonic leapt into the air just in time, and watched the snake-like stream fly underneath him. Without hesitation, he figured the wolf-thing to be open now as it retracted the energy whip, and went into a spin as he closed in.

The wolf raised its _other_ hand, and shot out another spike of energy in a heartbeat, catching the hedgehog directly in mid-spin. It ensnared him like a python, and the wolf whipped its hand from left to right, slamming the hedgehog into a wall. The whip retracted, darkening the room again, and Sonic fell to the ground as a smoking blue heap, twitching involuntarily as a pain coursed through him so intense it almost ceased being a sensation. Even more worrying than the pain, though, was that he felt… _drained._ Like a snake had sunk its fangs deep into his skin, and sucked the strength right out of him for its own sustenance. He could feel it, right within his bones as he shivered in the fetal position, the wolf had literally snatched his strength from him.

"No!" Sally shouted. "Sonic!"

"Go grab him, Sally!" Rotor shouted. "I'll cover you."

Sally nodded. As she ran out, slinging her backpack off her shoulders as she did so, Rotor took aim with his shotgun and fired, a little quicker than Sally would've been able to; Rotor was bigger, so he handled the weapon with a bit more finesse instead of struggling with its immense weight. The slug caught the wolf in the chest, forcing it back a little. A spray of some sort of acidic-type liquid sprayed out against the plant display behind it, melting some of them where they stood, but the creature barely flinched. He pumped his weapon and fired again, and again and again, the empty shell casings spilling out across the floor like ripe fruit, each one hitting its target but barely deterring it. All he had done was draw its attention. Now, he got only a dry click as he attempted to continue. The drum magazine was empty.

"I'm out!" Rotor shook the thing, as if it would somehow start working again if he did that enough. Another snake of green extended from the creature's fingertips, and it shot out again, this time toward Rotor. Instinctively raising his arms, the serpent caught his weapon, superheating it so badly it glowed red and Rotor had to let go. He could only imagine what Sonic was feeling now if that was what had happened to him.

"Come on, you ugly sonnuva gun…" Bunnie taunted as she rushed in to add her own attack. The snake shot out again from the wolf's other hand, but Bunnie caught it with a robotic arm, and was surprised to feel absolutely no effect from it at all. Could the weapon be configured to recognize and refrain from damaging any of Robotnik's roboticized components?

Disregarding the thought, she ran in as fast as she could and leapt into the air, planting a steel-plated foot directly into the wolf's chest, and they both crashed right through the wall in an explosion of debris and sparks. When the hit the floor in the next room, another room full of plants, Bunnie leant forward and went into a clumsy roll, and when she was a safe distance away, beam of green still wrapped around her arm, she tugged at it as hard as she could.

The beam was stronger than what it was attached to. The wolf's hand was ripped clean from its socket with a sickening tearing noise. The beam flickered and died as soon as the steel-gloved hand left its power source, and the piece rolled to a stop at Bunnie's feet.

Sally knelt down at Sonic's side, scooping up his head in her arms. "Are you alright?"

"Ugh… what do you think?" Sonic responded through clenched teeth, still feeling the surge of pain. "Slap me some power, Sal! Pronto!"

Sally reached into the backpack at her side, and produced the ring, filling the room with a warm golden glow. Sonic reached out and grabbed it, emptying his lungs in a massive sigh of relief. He felt the ring's power surge through his body, restoring it to its previous state, and then surpassing it, feeling the excess energy dance across his skin, his body now wreathed in electric fire.

"Alright," Sonic exclaimed as he leapt to his feet and spun up for the fight again. "Spin and win time!"

Feeling like time itself had slowed to a fraction of its former self, he sped through the hole in the wall into the next room, where Bunnie was up against the wall, preparing to be force-fed a helping of a few thousand volts. The wolf was screaming like a true monster, bereft of one hand, but the other one crackled, the green glow of energy from it licking around left and right like a serpentine tongue. It had learned to target Bunnie in the places that remained flesh, and closed in.

"Not so fast, big guy." Sonic said as he flashed into the room, right into the monster's line of sight. It growled and shot the luminescent green whip out again like lightning, but Sonic's reflexes were on fire. He watched the surge of energy approach him in slow motion, scraping along the ground and producing a mass of green sparks, all of them sending miniature bolts of lightning into each other with a frequency that now only Sonic's eyes were fast enough to catch. He spun into the air with ease, and drove himself into the wolf at a speed so fast the very air around them both seemed to distort and buckle, and blasted out of its back in a spray of clear goo, splinters of bone and loose wiring.

The thing turned around at him, mouth agape, and the torso finally fell right off of its legs. The abomination came apart and fell to the floor in a mass of pulpy flesh and steaming chunks of metal.

As the effects of the power ring wore off and time began to speed up again, Sonic noticed the smell. It reeked of years of decomposition, and suddenly he regretted scoffing down those ten chili-dogs earlier in the day.

Bunnie got to her feet, and Sally and Rotor emerged cautiously from the adjacent room.

"It's dead…" Rotor said, numb.

Sally gagged. "Judging from the smell, I'd say this guy was dead a long time before we ran into it, Rotor."

The screaming of the PA system kicked in again. "Freedom Fighters, this is Lupe. I locked myself in the observation lounge, just up above you. I'm unlocking the doors now, come on up."

The Knothole gang turned their attention to the ceiling, and noticed the glass cabin of the lounge, and the spiral stairs leading up to it. The began to ascend, and entered the room.

"Alright," Sonic began with more than a little irritation in his voice, "You said you guys were here on a supply raid. What are you doing in this place? I didn't see a single crate on the way here."

Lupe looked at him. "We'd heard of Snively experimenting with some sort of prototype weapon, and heard it had been hidden in here. The hydroponics section goes down underground further than any other of Robotropolis' installations."

"What about the mines?" Sally asked.

"We were wondering about that too," Lupe agreed, "But it seems with experiments like that," she pointed at the carcass on the floor of the room below with a shaky hand. "Temperature and atmosphere would also have been a concern."

"I'm guessing those electric gauntlets that thing was using is the weapon." Rotor observed.

"What about the rest of the Wolfpack?" Sally asked, pressing the point of them being here.

Lupe leaned her forehead against the glass, staring at the dead thing in the room below. "That's it…"

"Oh, Lupe…" Sally frowned, embracing her friend. "If there's anything we can do…"

"Wha…?" Bunnie wondered aloud. "We didn't see another soul on the way down here, till we bumped into that thing back there. Where'd the rest of the crew go?"

"They were hauled off somewhere, probably for roboticization, about an hour ago. They left that last of my pack to finish me off, until you showed up." She closed her eyes. "There will be no one back home for me to return to…"

"We've got plenty of room for you back at Knothole," Rotor suggested.

Lupe nodded and put on a faint smile. "That would be much appreciated. Thank you."

Sonic felt his hands clenching and unclenching in anger. "This is totally insane… so, roboticizing us wasn't good enough for Snively, huh? Now he wants to mutate us, turn us into some kind of twisted… things?" He shook his head. "And I thought we had it rough when it was 'Buttnik running the show. This is just… it's more than wrong! How could someone be this cold?"

Lupe sighed. "No, I don't think even Snively would be capable of this sort of cruelty. A computer voice spoke to us on our way down here. It sounded strange, like it was malfunctioning."

"The computer that talked to us when we were stealing those records a week ago!" Bunnie realized.

"It called itself Ariel. I believe it is that computer behind this particular incident. Snively has not made his presence known in any way for quite a while now. There seems to be some kind of takeover going on in Robotropolis… from the inside."

"You're saying Snively might be missing in action?" Sonic mused, arms folded.

"We can't discount the possibility," Sally responded, turning to the door as the group began to leave the lounge. "But we're going to have to up our game, if that creature back there is what we're going to be up against instead of SWATbots… again."

Rotor stopped as they walked in the center of the room, and knelt down to pick up the hybrid wolf's severed hand. "We may have an equalizer here…" he commented, and threw the hand into his backpack. "Now, time to get out of here."

---

Lupe stared absently into her cup of tea that had been prepared for her, watching her reflection in the swirl of the recently mixed drink. "They're all gone…" A tear rolled down her cheek and fell into the cup with a silent splash.

Bunnie sat next to her, and put a comforting arm around Lupe's shoulders. "It'll be alright, hon… we've all had to deal with this sorta thing in one way or another. We'll take this thing out soon and everything will be back to normal… well, as normal as we can make it… we're _this _close to getting a workin' deroboticizer."

"It'll never be the same." Lupe said, resigned. "No matter what we do, my people aren't coming back. We'll wear the scars of this war forever… now we don't even know what we're fighting!"

Antoine walked into the room, stepping lightly, hands clasped behind his back. "I hope I have made the tea to your liking, ma dame."

"It's fine, thank you."

A moment passed. "I am… truly sorry to hear of your loss, Lupe." He seemed to carry genuine remorse in his voice.

"I… still am not quite sure how to deal with it, really." Lupe admitted, taking a sip of her drink. Then she stood up. "If you don't mind, I would like to be alone for a while."

Sally was waiting outside when Bunnie and Antoine came out of the recently occupied hut. "How's she coping?"

"Poor thing's tearin' up…" Bunnie sighed. "Don't blame her, really."

"Is it true that Snively is missing, and some… eh, ordinateur has taken his place?" Antoine asked.

"It's only a theory we came up with." Sally answered. "We don't know for sure. But after what I've seen tonight, I have to wonder. Even Snively, even Robotnik, must've had _some _sense of morals, no matter how faint..." she looked at her feet. "My father would've known what to do. Even now, it feels like there's more going on here than we know. Something just feels so _wrong _now, with this Ariel in the picture. We're up against an enemy without a face..."

"Surely no one is without a true face," Antoine commented, suddenly sounding wise beyond his years. "It is just being a simple matter of time until it must show itself…"

Sally wondered if it was just Ariel that Antoine was talking about.


	3. Sacrament, Part 1

_Back again. This chappie turned out to be slightly shorter than I had anticipated, but with good reason; the way I was going, the episode was shaping up to be twice as long as I figured originally, so I elected to split it up into two parts. And thus here is the first. Second's coming... soonish._

_Primarily this episode deals with some of the inner workings of Antoine, a character that while in the show was quite annoying and never had his character fleshed out well apart from essentially saying "He's French and he's a fraidy cat lol". I'm attempting here to give him a bit more depth, and show that with enough of a shock, you can change anyone. You'll see this to a greater degree later on._

**EPISODE 3 - SACRAMENT, PART 1**

"Antoine…" he heard the warm whisper right in his ears, flowing slowly through his mind. He could feel the warmth of her body, painted against his, sticky from the heat of the night. Every sense was on fire, his muscles rigid yet feeling like liquid. His heart pumped ripples through every vein.

He slowly pulled back from her embrace and looked into those magnetic, azure eyes of hers. "Moi princess…" he began, softly, lifting a hand to stroke the fur of her cheek, the sight of her smile fulfilling the touch between his fingertips. "I… am so nervous but I feel so good…" His arm slowly ran up and down her back, under her vest, pushing her body against his. "So long have I been suffering for you, and now to have you in my arms! So surreal, I am feeling like I could die like this… my life, it is complete… I cannot think of anything better…"

She smiled up at him. "Don't think about anything, Antoine. All you need to know is that I am here now, and I am yours…" She raised her own hand and put it to his, the two now forming a mirror of each other against the moonlight. "Antoine… I love you…"

He words crawled across his skin, his heart feeling like it had melted and flowed through to his fingertips. He knew, she could taste and smell every feeling that came from him, and returned it tenfold.

"And I love you, moi princess… oh how long so I've waited to be able to tell you that… je t'aime très fort, ma chérie…"

Under normal circumstances, Antoine's language was oftentimes considered to be annoying and often completely indecipherable. But Sally knew that phrase, and with it she melted. With no hesitation, she leaned in, and pressed her lips to his, and he responded hungrily, wrapping an arm around her neck as the two drank in the moment, coveting every second that escaped from them. The moment was alive with nothing but pure honesty, red raw and passionate.

He pulled away and beheld her face once more, his eyes glossy with tears. "Truly, you are the one I have longed for. And now you are mine, it feels like a dream…"

Antoine awoke curled up on the floorboards, his fur soaked in sweat, mouth agape, and realized it was a dream.

Icy hands ripped through his chest and raked away at his heart until there was nothing left but shreds of bleeding sinew.

He coughed, and dragged himself to his feet, tears streaming down his cheeks. Driven only by his shattered nerves, he staggered toward his full-length mirror and stared at the wretch before him. The wretch stared back, and Antoine hated him with a passion so pure it was almost palpable. He wanted to wrench that figure right through the mirror and pummel him into the ground with his fists again and again until he stopped squirming, that pathetic life of his ended finally, so he would be dead forever and no one would ever, ever miss him. Then he wanted to hit him some more.

He raised a fist and sent it right into the mirror, shattering it into a million pieces. His lacerated hands clawed at the blank wooden boards behind it as his drained body fell to its quivering knees, smearing upon them a trail of blood.

"I am alone, so alone…" he screamed at the ceiling, between heaving, tortured sobs. Even the room itself seemed to just back away from him. Not out of fear, not out of disgust, but pure and simple neglect and disinterest, which cut even deeper. "Alone in my torment… I am forever to be the jester pining for his dove, with no one to hear his cries, forlorn and deprived… forever…"

His battered body collapsed against his polished floorboards. They were cold, and the room he worked so hard daily to keep presentable and polished, looked down upon him with an acidic leer.

"Forever…"

---

"When did he tell you all this?"

"Just got the message from him this morning. They'll be moving the convoy through today. It's our only chance to see what it is and where it's going. We know there's a checkpoint here," Rotor said, pointing to a spot marked on a map of the Acorn kingdom, one of the many valleys that adorned Mobius. "Chances are it'll stop there for refueling. That's your ticket on."

"So, not even a clue on what that thing's hauling?" Sonic yawned.

"Chuck wouldn't tell us anything less than everything he knows. You should know that. All we know is that either Snively or that Ariel thing is sending a convoy out, and it's big."

"Alright. How about we wait at the checkpoint till it rolls through, then juice and trash the show right there? Cut 'em off at the head!"

"I've already said, if you were listening," Sally glared at him. "Where it's going could be just as important as what's on it. For now, this mission is recon _only_. We find out the score before we pick a play for this one, Sonic."

Sonic grumbled, leaning back in his chair at the conference table, putting his legs up, hands behind his head. "Great. Chase a bunch of robots across the countryside so we can sit there and _watch_ them. Sure sounds exciting."

"Relax, sugah. Ah'm sure there'll be plenty of SWATbot dustin' to do on the way back." Bunnie said with a wink, giving him a nudge on the shoulder.

"Whatever."

"So, everyone down with the plan?" Sally asked. The others murmured their agreement, save one.

All eyes fell on Antoine.

"Antoine?" she probed.

"Eh, sounds good," he sighed.

Shortly after, the conference ended and everyone dispersed to get themselves prepared for a hike through the forest, out to the valley of Cronos where one of Snively's outposts was waiting. Antoine, however, stayed put in his seat, sighing as he looked out the window.

Sally passed by him, and stopped to observe him for a second. He looked almost catatonic, eyes staring wide into nothing in particular. "Are you alright, Antoine?"

He turned to her, and looked into her beautiful eyes only for a second before his heart ensnared his thoughts and he forced himself to look away. "Fine, fine…"

She pulled up a chair and sat on it backwards, legs parted around its back, and rested her chin on it. "Tell me what the matter is, Antoine. It's okay."

He let his head droop, a few locks of golden hair falling over his eyes. "It'd be best I don't…"

"Antoine, you're my friend." she assured him, resting a hand on his shoulder. "You can tell me anything. Just get it off your chest, and you'll feel better."

He looked and studied the delicate features of that hand sitting on his shoulder out the corner of his eye, and after a moment's deliberation, decided to take her advice. "The problem…" he began, and sighed.

"The problem…?"

He looked at her. "The problem, is you, princess!"

"Me!?"

"Non! Non! The problem is me! Non! It's you… _us!!_" he strained, teeth bared in frustration.

"What?" Sally pulled her hand away from him, shoulders tensed.

"I… I love you, moi princess…" he let his head hang low now, his heart unloading.

"What?" she said again, suddenly shifting a little.

"For all the time I have been knowing of you, moi princess, my heart has bled for you. You, Princess Sally, are the one I have pined for an eternity for…" he suddenly dropped to a knee, took her hand and clutched it to his heart, and stared at her with wide eyes. "Please, I beg of you… tell me my suffering has not been in vain!"

Sally frowned, and closed her eyes. "I…"

"Tell me you feel the same for me… tell me you feel something for me! _Anything!_"

Now was Sally's turn to look away. "I can't, Antoine."

The heavy silence swirled around the both of them, thick and soupy.

"I have to hear it! My heart, oh it bleeds… I will die if you do not tell me!"

"Do you want me to lie to you!? Is that it!?" she snapped back at him, springing up from the chair she previously sat on, sending it flying across the room. "Look, Antoine. I'm sorry you think of me that way, but I _cannot _do the same! I don't want to say it but you're wasting your time with me. I could never see you as anything more than my friend, Antoine."

"Sally…" he whispered.

"Absolutely not. That's it."

A sandstorm was blowing inside his head. He felt like his own body wanted to rip itself to pieces at the atomic level. Reality was a sledgehammer and it pounded him beyond submission, and then some. Pain wreathed around every limb as his heart seized, gears stripping. All he could hear was the roaring of wind, and the spine-chilling shriek of nails on a blackboard.

Rejection.

The word adorned everything. Every sign, in the corner of his eye. It was scrawled across the back of his eyelids in blood. His veins pumped acid. He ached, suddenly exhausted, but he just wanted to run.

He heard the faint echoes of Sally's voice as he turned and strode off. "I'm sorry…"

Then, he ran.

---

"Alright, we're all here. Tails, did you grab the power ring for Sonic?" Sally asked, the wind brushing a lock of hair in her face.

"Sure did," the kit responded. "Um… we're not all here yet. There's no Antoine."

Sally looked down for a bit, and shrugged. "I don't think he's coming, Tails."

"Why not?"

"He…" she looked around desperately for the words. "He's got a few issues of his own to deal with. That's all."

"Alright. Let's push off while we still got some day left." Sonic said, beginning to stride down the forest path. Sally watched him as the shadows from the canopy moved across his spines, and after sparing a glance back at Knothole, began following him, with the others doing the same. The walk would be long and hardly eventful, just a long track down some of the minor, natural paths cut through the forest. Knothole had no artificial roads leading to it for obvious reasons, but the local wildlife frequently beat their own tracks in the forest, which the freedom fighters made use of. They were safe enough and stable without being too obvious that any of the enemy would be able to pick them out and follow them.

After about an hour, the dense woods gradually began to give way to damp, grassy slopes cut out of pale rock canyons, where vines coated in dense crops of exotic, alien flowers snaked their way all the way up the walls of the landscape. The sun was slowly making its evening fall now, lighting everything in smooth shades of pink and orange. The only sounds for a while were the soft, wet squishes of footsteps in the wet grass, and the occasional coos of some of the Mobius birds, that would float throughout the mountain pass with a ghostly echo. Sally had slowed down her walk to be behind the rest of the group, with Sonic, Tails and Rotor heading up the front. Soon, though, Bunnie slowed her walk and fell in next to Sally.

"How ya holdin' up, Sally girl?"

"I'm fine, Bunnie."

"Hey… what's been gettin' into 'Twan lately? I saw him skulkin' around the forest earlier today. Tried to talk to the guy but he just locked 'imself inside his hut."

Sally let out a long sigh. "He kinda… tried to ask me out. Or something."

Bunnie's eyebrows raised. "My gosh, darlin'… I knew he had a thing for you, but… what, he fessed up everything?"

They came to a steep rockslide, that led down into an even deeper cut portion of the valley. After witnessing the others had already made their way down and were staring up, waiting for the two, they begun their careful descent down the rocky slope, trying to keep their footing as best as they could.

"Yeah… he really let himself go. I didn't know what to say… I just had to say no. He didn't take it too well, as I guess you can see. I feel bad for him."

Bunnie gave her a reassuring smile, sitting down and carefully dropping off the edge of a particularly large rock, and landing on another evenly on her feet, turned back up at Sally as she followed. "Don't cut yerself up about it. I think we all knew it was gonna happen. He'll put himself together again eventually."

"I hope so," Sally mumbled with a shrug. She spared a glance to Sonic, Tails and Rotor, who were still waiting at the bottom of the incline, and was about to give them a wave, when she realized they weren't looking at her. They were looking behind her, at the top of the slope.

Antoine looked back down at them, royal uniform looking unusually, excessively ironed and groomed. Whilst he normally had a saber at his side, this time he'd elected to take something that was rarely seen outside his own house; his father's silver claymore hung off his back. A heavy, two-handed sword, it was around three quarters of Antoine's height, but the cocktail of alloys that comprised it seemed to allow him to move about with little trouble.

Quickly, he rappelled down the slope and arrived at the bottom, met with a few confused stares.

"Uh… Antoine…" Sally began, suddenly feeling herself becoming uneasy.

"Antoine? You okay?" Rotor asked.

He laughed, face contorting only in politeness to hide the sneer that would come otherwise. "Do I not look fine to you?"

"Well, I didn't mean--"

"Look, Roteur, I am not thinking there is any time for idle disgustion. We have a convoy to find, no?"

Sonic walked up and gave him a slap on the back, from which he pulled away. "That's the ticket, Ant! I'm glad someone around here's got some drive about 'em."

With that, the group continued down the valley with little discussion. Sally and Bunnie occasionally spared a glance at Antoine, who seemed to be carrying himself with a strange sense of confidence they'd never seen before. He never turned to look at Sally, which did some to make her feel a little better, but then again, the reasons for his averting her were rather disconcerting. She put it down to bitterness. It was only a natural reaction when one was let down as he was, and she did feel remorse for saying no to him… but she figured it would've been worse if she said yes.

Deep down, Antoine was thinking the same things. Logic told him to just bear with it and go on. But his heart told him otherwise. He did dare to glance her way, see that body of hers moving, fur ruffling slightly as she walked, breathe in that intoxicating fragrance of hers…

He wanted to make her hurt, just like she'd hurt him. He wanted to make her feel the dull, deep agony that came with the curse of unrequited love. But moreover, he wanted to take her in his arms and hold her close, and all would be forgiven. But he knew he couldn't do either of those things. So he kept his attention on the trail, fuming inside, wondering for a second why he'd even bothered to make the effort to catch with everyone and do this stupid mission anyway. It wasn't like he had ever had the guts or sense in the past to make his presence beneficial in any which way… but he felt the angel on his shoulder tugging at him, egging him on to do _something_. To fight back that sense of uselessness that had been plaguing him for so long now.

By now, the night had set in, the light of the full moon peeking out from behind the low clouds, making patches of darkness shift like ghosts across the landscape as the clouds moved overhead. The grass here was long, and tugged at their clothes as they moved amongst it.

"That's the place." Rotor said finally, snapping everyone out of their thoughts. He pointed across the lush glen to a few hundred meters down the valley, where the lights of a supply and refueling outpost could be seen, orange hazard lights flashing about in a staccato pattern.

"How are we doing for time?" Bunnie asked.

"About five minutes early. It should be rolling through any time now. Keep your eyes over there," Rotor pointed to the distance, where a long, winding dirt road snaked its way around the side of one of the canyon walls and into the horizon. "It'll be coming from that direction. We should get to the depot and hide out till it arrives, and get on when they're getting ready to leave."

"Make sure you keep your flashlights off, guys," Sally advised. "And keep your head low. We'll get to the depot along the canyon walls. Keep your heads down, stick to the thick grass, and make as little noise as possible. Right?"

"Can I jog?" Sonic asked jovially.

"No."

"Then I can run?"

"No."

"I can skip?"

Sally finally relented and laughed. "No."

After a few minutes of brisk movement, they arrived at the depot. It stood two stories tall, but there was little doubt that there was also an elevator leading down into levels below ground. At the side was a large refueling tank, sitting near a smaller warehouse. SWATbots patrolled every corner, and two search lights scanned the surrounds, but thankfully there was nothing compared to the zombie-like abomination that the freedom fighters had confronted a while ago.

They moved quietly to where a tight bundle of pipes were emerging from an outcropping of rock in the canyon walls, and hid there. The spotlights moved close by, but not in their way. Each knowing the stakes if they were discovered, they patiently waited, studying the bots patrol routes until finally, they heard a rumbling in the distance. Looking over to the mountain pass in the distance Rotor had pointed out, they saw the telltale lights of what appeared to be large enough to count as a town with wheels. It was a massive road train looking to be nearly a half-kilometer long, with multiple carriages, running on tracks that would make one assume it was a large and unwieldy vehicle if it weren't moving so fast. Sonic doubted even he would be able to run apace with it for long.

Eventually, it slowed down as it approached the depot in its titanic bulk. The grinding of its tracks chewing up the landscape it rode on was intense enough to shudder through one's whole body and grip their heart in a chokehold. Bunnie moved away from the pipe she previously leant against as it started rattling violently, loose stones around it coming loose and rolling down the gradual decline.

"Whoa, man! Look at the _size_ of that thing!" Tails gasped in wonder.

They watched the juggernaut come to a stop, and observed its decks. Even more SWATbots were present, along with what looked to be some sort of upgraded version of them, wearing armor that looked to be darker and duller, carrying enormous belt-fed weapons that looked to be some light version of a chain gun.

"I don't like the look of this," Sonic murmured.

Tails looked at him with some surprise. "You think it's too dangerous?"

"I hate to say it big guy, but I think you should go back. I'm not even sure I wanna go through with this, with that many goons patrolling that thing."

"If we stay out of sight we should be okay," Sally said. "But…" She looked at Tails. "I think Sonic's right. This is going to be more complicated than I imagined. And a lot more dangerous. You better head back, Tails."

"But..!"

"I'll go back with you, Tails…" Rotor said solemnly. "This looks like a job that'll be only for the best. You're a freedom fighter, but you've gotta break yourself in too. It'd be suicide to go in without the experience these guys have." He remarked, pointing over his shoulder at Sally, Bunnie and Sonic with his thumb.

Tails hung his head low, ears folded back, his normally lively tails now unhappily flicking back and forth over the ground.

The piping next to them suddenly shuffled, making them jump, and began humming loudly. Evidently, it was a fuel pipe, and was now in use as the road train was being filled with gallons upon thousands of gallons of fuel. After about fifteen minutes, the thrumming abruptly shut off, and SWATbots scrambled to close up doors on the sides of the vehicle and toggle heavy looking levers, locking down large shipping containers full of cargo.

"They're getting ready to leave," Bunnie remarked. "Now or never, gang."

"See you guys later," Rotor waved at them as he began to head off with Tails at his side. "You coming, Antoine?"

Antoine shook his head. "Non. I am going with the train."

"Okay. Good luck." Rotor waved, and began making his way upside the canyon.

Sonic turned to Antoine and glared at him, eyes bugging out. "No. You're not."

The coyote looked back at him with a steel gaze that defied his character. "I ask that this time you trust me, _indigne_."

"Whatever." Sonic said, and shrugged, wondering silently what the hell _indigne_ meant. "Just stay out of trouble. You screw up, and we're all worm food."

"There's a ladder up the back of the train," Sally observed. "We need to make a beeline for that, and get on before the thing takes off!"

Without further hesitation, the four of them sprung out from behind the piping that had sheltered them before, and began running for the ladder across the field.

A spotlight fell upon them as soon as they stepped out. Even Sonic froze in his tracks for a moment, uncomfortable with the sudden harsh warmth he could feel on his skin, before making a decision. "Get back!"

"INTRUDERS DETECTED. ELIMINATE THREAT IMMEDIATELY. PRIORITY ONE: TARGET SONIC HEDGEHOG."

SWATbots and heavy bots ran across the field, firing their weapons wildly. The freedom fighters ducked behind the pipe again, the heavy metal getting pelted with gunfire, sending sparks flying. The loud whirring of chain guns winding up could be heard, and promptly the pipe was under thrice the punishment it was before, starting to bend and warp with all the firepower it was taking. The group kept their heads low until it gradually stopped.

"Man, even _I_ couldn't take that kinda firepower on!" Sonic panted. "We better juice 'n' jam outta here. Never thought I'd say it, but this is more than I can chew on."

Sally nodded, and they began to run again. Sporadic gunfire chipped away at the canyon wall behind them, but they were already out of range.

Bunnie looked behind her, and noticed something. A feeling of intense dread sprung up from the earth and seized her heart. "Where's Antoine!?!"

Sally looked back, and the wave of nausea overcame her as well. She scanned the landscape desperately for him but he was nowhere in sight, as everything became enshrouded in the dust of the juggernaut lurching into movement again, filling the canyon with its overpowering roar once again.

Bunnie grabbed her by the shoulder as they kept running, the sounds of gunfire still popping out in the distance. "He couldn't be…!?"

Sally stared at her for a second, and just kept running, unable to answer.

He watched them as they slowly turned from small figures in the distance to tiny dots on the horizon, and then vanished from sight. Slumped up against the cold steel wall next to a ladder at the end of the last carriage, he looked up and watched as the clouds rushed overhead, whipping winds filling his head with a familiar noise. Sparing one last thought for his beloved princess, Antoine Depardieu wiped away the tears that trickled down one cheek, rose to his feet and unsheathed his sword.

To the wind, he whispered, "_Est maintenant finalement ma chance de se prouver…_"

He slowly turned, and began to move along the carriage. "_…et si c'est l'extrémité, alors au moins la mort sera moins douloureuse que ma vie._"


	4. Sacrament, Part 2

**EPISODE 4 - SACRAMENT, PART 2**

Slow, casual footsteps echoed throughout the halls. The light shining down was a radiant blue, glistening over an endless, mirror-like expanse, sparkling and beautiful as the ocean, yet dry and lifeless as the desert. Amid this expanse of everlasting blue, sat a large crystalline rock crevice, and carved out of it was a familiar looking castle, razor-sharp crystal shrubs prickling a garden made of finely chopped blue gravel. Reflective brickwork raised organically from the ground and stretched up into the sky, the entire structure sitting alone in an expanse of nothingness like a brooding giant. Near the top of the castle was a large spire, the top of which carried a dome which looked out into the endless plains.

Within this dome, two souls strode along idly, relaxed yet ambivalent. Any tension or malice that could ever hope to spawn between them now was choked and stifled by the sheer hopelessness of their situation.

"I do find this situation to be staggeringly ironic and yet… nostalgic at the same time." one of them said, his steps heavy and uneven.

The other looked at him. "I don't hope to be in it for too much longer. I've been here long enough."

"To think even for a second that either of us has any chance of escape, let alone survival in the outside world by now, is futile, your highness." came the reply. "There no longer is a way out for us. I have accepted my fate. When the interdimensional rift Doomsday created threw me in here, even as those waves pulled at every inch of my body, I never thought to fight back."

"What of Naugus? He's left already. There _is_ a way out of the void."

"A monarch you may be, but you are no sorcerer. And nor am I. Perhaps…" the portly figure stopped in his path, suddenly coating the world with silence, "I have finally understood that such a fate is only fitting, for the things that I have done in my life."

The King looked at him, with an eyebrow raised. "You, Julian? You are… repentant?"

"No, no." Robotnik chortled, not hiding his amusement. "To think that I actually regret taking action against your kind, my king…! Never. Had I the chance, I would do it all over again… albeit with a few subtle changes. The only regret I feel is having made the mistake of allowing myself to be transported to this place… but what does it matter now? I am long past harboring feelings of spite or vengefulness of anything to lead up to this situation. What can one do but simply try to revel in the place that he has been cast into?"

Maximillan stared out of the glass window into those sparkling planes of nothing, sighing another stale breath so tasteless he felt like he could simply hold his breath and it would make no difference. "I've been here for so long now, I cannot believe I haven't been driven completely mad. You, Julian, still can bear the memory of what it is like to taste a breath of Mobius air, feel the rays of the sun upon you. As selfish as I sound, I long for those simple pleasures again."

"Selfish indeed. Should your primary concern not be of your kingdom?"

"My kingdom is lost to me now. I would never be so silly as to think of myself as a king now. There is nothing left in my life to rule anymore. My title has been reduced to just that… a title. Instead, I rule only over my endless dismay, longing to live again…"

"Your highness, you are alive right now…" Robotnik chuckled again, his whole body jiggling like a bowl full of jelly. "One thing I never understood about you Mobians… you hold 'life' in this idealistic, dreaming sense. There's nothing to say life is any of that. Life is a sentient being possessing the ability to think and function. It is nothing more. I cannot see how you could be so miserable here in this place. The Void sustains you forever! You need not breathe, eat, sleep… every basic need is accounted for."

"Is that really the way you think, Julian?" The monarch looked him in the eye. "Life is not simply being in a state of alive or dead. It's an experience. Experiencing feelings! Joy, sorrow…! This place has none of those things. There's nothing to do, nothing that has to be done. There are no ups, downs. Just endless slate. When you close your eyes from one blue day only to open them to another, with no hope of anything to accomplish… you really call this living? If that's the philosophy you hold on life, I cannot say I am surprised you sought to level my kingdom and reduce Mobius to a wasteland! You don't even know what life _is…_"

"I think I know what life is more essentially and purely than you ever could hope to…" Robotnik replied. "That is where we differ. I cannot foresee any occasion that our approaches will differ, either. If this place bothers you so much…"

Robotnik walked over to a sharp piece of crystal nearby, picked it up and ran it along his flesh arm, watching the skin separate slowly, trickles of red blossoming from the wound. "Tell me, Maximillan… have you ever considered…?"

Max watched the blood trickle down Robotnik's arm, specks of it dotting around his feet against cold blue. "I would never take my own life, not even in this place. Foolish as it sounds… I still have some hope to return to my life."

"Life…" Robotnik looked down at his arm, flexing his fingers, watching the lines of crimson carve their intricate patterns along it. "Life is short. The flesh is nothing more than a hollow capsule, designed to carry our existence until it expires, and the possessor is lost forever. In my dreams, I have seen a world where we are no longer confined to a vessel that is bound to leak. I see a world where we all exist as one consciousness… like your gods supposedly spawned all life, I was to be the one to usher life into a new era… an era that would go on forever. Technology. The second coming…"

"The world you want is one where we are just a bunch of mindless machines!" the king spat, not hiding his ire.

Robotnik grinned a broad, evil grin, with a contented grumble. "Indeed… my utopia. How beautiful would it be?"

---

Tap, tap, tap.

"Sonic, would you quit that already?"

"Quit what?"

"Tapping your foot against the floor."

"Sorry, Sal. It hurts. I sprained it on the way out of there."

"I know. You were saying the whole way back."

"I can't run!"

"I know! If you sprain your ankle, you won't be able to run. Duh."

"No need to get all edgy on me, Sal. Jeez."

Silence.

Sally looked to her feet, then to Sonic, then to Bunnie, who was laying silent and prone on her bed.

Tap, tap, tap.

Sally leaned back, her arms draped over the back of her chair, legs propped up on her desk. She'd removed her vest, and it hung loosely from one of her hands. She sighed slowly as she stared up at the fan above her, rotating slowly. For a second, amusingly, she realized she always saw the familiar image of that fan whenever she was… stressed. "Nicole?"

"YES, SALLY?"

"I don't suppose you made a scan for electromagnetic activity while we were there?"

Sonic sat up on the edge of Sally's bed, still tapping his foot against the bedpost. "Why would she do that?"

"To see if there was any computer equipment there. Computers that would mention where that road train was going."

"I DID, SALLY, AS PER STANDARD OPERATIONAL PROCEDURE. EMI SCAN TURNED UP NEGATIVE. ACCORDING TO MY READINGS, THERE WAS NO ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT PRESENT AT THE DEPOT. I CONCLUDE THE STATION WAS CONSTRUCTED FOR REFUELLING PURPOSES ONLY."

"So…" Sally looked down at her feet. "We don't have a lead at all."

"New message from Uncle Chuck!" Rotor burst into the room, holding a printed piece of paper in his hand. "He intercepted an announcement from Ariel. She wants to send an additional SWATbot Recon team to the shipment's destination to…" Rotor used his paws to imitate quote marks here, "…'Investigate' an 'incident' with some of their troops. They're getting ready to send another supply convoy through in a few days too."

"So we've got another chance to catch up to the train!" Sally exclaimed, sitting up straight, face lit up. "Sonic, you think we could manage another attempt?"

Sonic grimaced, features showing genuine regret. "Not unless you want to be the one carrying _me_, Sal. No can do. Not with this busted ankle."

"Ugh!" Sally slammed her fist into the desk, almost making a nearby lamp topple over. "Why did it have to be TONIGHT you chose to mess yourself up?"

He smirked back at her. "Hey, you're welcome to try carrying a princess through a forest in pitch darkness at 130 miles an hour any time."

Bunnie's ears visibly perked up, and she propped herself up on her elbows. "When's it comin' through?"

"Recon will be there around 5am," Rotor said, then looked at his watch. "A little under five hours from now."

"Me 'n Sally-girl could hot tail it back over to that depot in that time."

"I don't think the recon team's gonna be stopping there this time. Just passing by it."

"We'd have the drop on 'em in there. We could hold 'em up..."

Sally sighed. "I don't think I feel up to it anymore. It might be just a recon team, but they're much better armed than they used to be. We'd have a better chance waiting for Sonic's foot to heal up, then making our move on the next convoy."

Bunnie scowled, placing her hands on her hips. "What the hoo-hah is wrong with y'all? I don't give a buzzard's behind about where the shipment's goin' for now. We have to get Antoine back!"

"Antoine's not stupid… well, not very." Sonic shrugged. "I know he made a mistake getting on the train, and I don't know how he did it even, but there's no way he'd be sticking around on that thing. If there's one thing Antoine's good at, it's escaping and running away. I reckon he'll be back soon."

"It's been a while already, sugah."

Sally nodded. "Give him some time, Bunnie. It's not the first time this has happened. He'll manage."

Bunnie looked away, still scowling. "He'd better. This just feels so wrong. He may not have been the bravest of the bunch of us or the brightest coin in the purse, but that doesn't mean we can just leave one of our own in the lurch, y'know?"

"I know how you feel, Bunnie. But we just gotta… wait this one out…" Sonic put a hand on her shoulder, realizing he'd cringed at the word 'wait'. "Anyway, things might pick up a bit after we've all had some shuteye. Night, guys." Sonic got up, waved, and hobbled out back to his hut. Rotor soon followed Sonic's example.

Sally sighed again, and looked back to her fan. "He's right. I think I'll call it a night too. We can sort this mess out in the morning."

"Yeah… seeya." Bunnie said sullenly, and skulked out the door.

"Hey…" Sally walked up behind her, and turned her around to embrace her in a tight hug. "Don't worry about Antoine. He'll be back by morning, I know it. He can take care of himself if he really needs to."

Bunnie just nodded, turned and walked away.

As she lay awake in bed a few hours later, she mulled over why she didn't feel like Antoine was going to come back. Was it his attitude he'd exhibited earlier, the stony face he'd looked at her with when he showed up at the top of that hill? The way he'd recklessly run headlong to board the road train? When Sally had told her what had happened between the two of them? The way she'd seen Antoine staring back at them from the train, totally motionless, as it sped away?

She shook her head. It was all of those things. She had the strong feeling Antoine wasn't going to be alighting that train. Foolishly, he was going to remain there and let it take him away.

She spared a glance at the clock. 1am.

She got up, lost her nightie, slipped into her outfit, and exited outside. She followed the short road to Antoine's hut and knocked on the door a few times.

She opened the door.

"Antoine? You in here?"

There was no reply. He wasn't in here.

"That's it," Bunnie growled to herself, "We have to go get him!" She stood in Antoine's empty, silent lounge for a while, thinking about what Sally had said earlier. Could she go wake her up, get her to come along?

"_I don't think I feel up to it anymore."_

As she exited Antoine's hut, and as she silently opened the door to Rotor's workshop, it hit her. She was alone. She was the only one that could realistically try and get Antoine back now. For a moment, she wondered if she was the only one that _wanted _to get him back. She could drop on the recon team as it passed by the refueling depot. She could hijack their transport and take it to the train's destination. She knew all of Snively's hovercraft were programmed to follow a set route, rather than being piloted. All she had to do was get on… she had four hours. If she kept her pace brisk, she could make it.

She walked cautiously through the darkness in the workshop, and looked to Rotor's workbench.

In the middle, it sat, the skylight in the ceiling casting a perfect beam of light around it.

The hand she'd ripped off that wolf a while back.

She picked it up and studied it briefly. It was metallic, with a few loose wires and joints hanging out. It looked like Rotor had been hygienic enough to remove all the stringy bits of flesh that had come off along with the hand earlier. But upon closer inspection, she could see the thread where it could be detached from the wrist that came with it. She picked it up, unscrewed the hand out of its socket, and held her own metallic hand up aside it. Bingo.

She'd only done this once before, and that was by accident, and she knew it would hurt like hell. It may have been metallic, but it still possessed a connection with her nerves. She grabbed a rag and stuffed it between her gritted teeth, then gripped her flesh hand around her metal one tightly.

She took a deep breath. "Three, two, one…"

Three rotations one quick wrench, and with a sickening 'pop', it was off. Waves of intense pain shot through her shoulder, making her fight the urge to scream tooth and nail. She wondered if she'd faint if she took too long with this.

She grabbed the wolf's hand, slammed it into her wrist socket, and gave it three quick turns. As suddenly as the pain had started, now she could feel it no more. Testing it quickly, she flexed the fingers of it. The black metallic hand sitting against the chrome of her arm looked odd, but it felt no less natural the old hand she had. Now, there was one thing left to find out.

She stepped outside, and looked to a nearby tree. Willing her arm's electronics to increase the power load, she lashed out with her robotic arm in the direction of one of the tree branches, flicking her wrist as she did so.

A glowing cordage of green shot out of her palm and wrapped around the branch tightly. With a firm wrench, she retracted the line, and ripped the branch clean off in a shower of green sparks. It landed quietly at her feet, smoking and glowing red hot where the whip had taken it. A small blizzard of leaves stirred in the air, and slowly fell to the ground.

"Ha!!" It worked perfectly! For a moment, the excitement she felt at trying out this new toy was approaching orgasmic.

But soon, her face hardened again, and she pressed the hand against her heart, looking out to the edge of the forest.

"Jus' you hang in there a bit longer, sugah-'Twan. I'm comin' for ya!"

---

The sweat made his face glisten in the face of the morning sun.

At his feet was the smoking remains of three SWATbots, that he'd carved to pieces with the sword he'd taken with him. He smirked, amused. The way he'd jumped out from behind cover, caught them totally off-guard and cut them down where they stood… it felt cathartic. He gloated only for a second, took a glance from the flatcar where he was out to the rapidly passing mountains in the distance, and quickly moved to cover, unsure if any more bots had taken notice of him.

Antoine realized the fear that had so easily dominated him in the past stemmed from his severe care for the preservation of his own life. Ordinarily, how could one have a problem with that? It was simply natural to run from danger if it meant saving his own skin, well at least that was the way he had figured it.

But now, he hardly cared if he was victorious here or if in the next few seconds he'd be pinned to the wall, every inch of his body ripped to shreds in a hail of bullets.

He didn't care. Not anymore.

And so, the fear was gone.

He leapt from one flatcar to the next, and pressed his back to one of the many shipping containers that resided here. Slowly he crept, ducking around corners to catch a glimpse of the dangers that lay beyond them. He was on fire. He was an animal, preying on his hapless victims. Some primal instinct inside him wished that they were flesh and blood inside.

"INTRUDER DETECTED. ALL UNITS TO --"

Antoine whirled around and had already swung the massive blade around to pin the SWATbot against the wall, half-impaled on the sharp edge. Sparks and oily black fluid erupted in massive quantities from its torso, and its chain gun arm twitched, six massive barrels still slowly spinning. He couldn't keep this up if he stayed put… all he had to do was keep moving.

From behind one container to another, he kept his movement effective and brisk. Up ahead, he saw out from where the maze of shipping containers emptied out to another open flatcar, and atop it sat a few things.

Two massive, hulking half-robot mobians were knelt on the open flatcar. It seemed they had been wolves in their past life, reminding him of members of Lupe's wolfpack. It hit him as soon as he thought about her… these must've been what the others had come to refer to as 'zombie wolves'. Indeed, it seemed to suit. The fur was mottled and gray, their eyes a flat, pearly white. Electronics and wires haphazardly coiled in and out of their flesh, and he could see something had been done to their hands; a metal appendage extended from their wrists, more than likely concealing a weapon of some sort.

And in the middle of the open flatcar was some fencing, containing a massive, glowing green crystal that was chained to the steel plating below it. It reminded him of the crystal that powered the power ring generator back in Knothole, but this one was much larger and much more brilliant in its glow than anything else he'd ever seen in his life.

His ears perked up, turning his attention to movement from behind him. He'd have to deal with the wolves when he got to them.

"INTRUDER DETECTED. SEND BACKUP TO FLATCAR 17-D."

"ACKNOWLEDGED. SWITCH TO HV AMMUNITION. THE INTRUDER IS USING THE CONTAINERS TO EVADE YOU. SWITCH VISUAL MODES TO THERMOOPTICS. SEAL BOTH ENDS OF FLATCAR. THE INTRUDER MUST NOT REACH THE MASTER."

Antoine's eyebrow raised. It seemed this new, camouflaged line of SWATbots had received upgrades to their intelligence as well as their weapons loadout. They were actually working together…! But the communication he'd overheard raised a few questions: Who was this 'Master'? Were they referring to Snively?

With a massive crash and groan, a massive hole suddenly erupted in the container wall next to him. And he was about to ask himself what HV ammunition was, and it came to him; High Velocity. Depleted uranium slugs capable of penetrating almost any type of cover. All he could do was run, suddenly feeling like a rat in a maze, being hunted by more than a few cats. He found himself running as hard and fast as he could, seeing spiraling trails of smoke left by the enormous armor-piercing rounds being fired at him just in front of him. Sparks and chunks of metal flew everywhere, and now, in the narrow corridors that hid him previously were now a shroud. Surrounded by destruction and trapped between two walls, he desperately tried to place the direction the fire was coming from.

"THERMAL SENSOR DETECTS TWO ADDITIONAL INTRUDERS ON FLATCAR 17-D."

"ACKNOWLEDGED. ELIMINATE THREAT."

He heard the communication just around the corner. Who was it? A rescue party? It couldn't be… could it?

"ONE THREAT HAS BEEN ELIMINATED."

"ACKNOWLEDGED. DESTROY THE OTHER TWO IMMEDIATELY."

Who the hell had just been killed? It frustrated him; all this was going on less than ten meters in every direction, but he had no clue which way to go to get to them.

He rounded the corner, sword raised, and saw the SWATbot's barrel pointed directly at his face. He dropped low and in a 360 degree spin, slid down and past the bot, his blade splitting it in half. He rolled and sprung to his feet, noting the intensity in the gunfire had suddenly dropped.

He hoped to whatever gods existed that the reported eliminated threat wasn't Sally having followed him on here and taken a slug to the face.

The container next to him suddenly was run through with multiple shots, and he hit the floor, all of them miraculously flying over him. Sparing a glance to the damage in the container next to him, he could see through the perfectly straight series of holes, exactly where the fire was coming from. Finally…!

He made a beeline for it. Around one container, between two others, he weaved and dodged, dancing between barrage after barrage of gunfire. He could hardly believe none had hit him yet, but he couldn't count on luck alone much longer. He had to stop them. Within a few seconds, the two were in view. In the narrow space between containers, he couldn't come right at them; they'd line him up and take him out quickly. So he ran around the container, and met them in the intersection.

In a single, large slash, he passed them as they fired, one of their shots just narrowly missing his neck. He could feel the fur being burnt off from the immense heat of the superheated projectile.

Both of the bots tried slowly to turn and face Antoine, but as they did so, where their torsos should have pivoted, they now simply fell off. Their remains crumpled in a sparkling heap.

But now the carriage was silent. Containers left and right were ripped to shreds, piles of their miscellaneous contents spilled out and now rattling on the vibrating floor.

Stepping around the corner, he found the splattered remains of a zombie wolf. He felt a wave of both relief and fear at the same time. It seemed the bots had picked up their thermal signature and assessed it as a threat. Not only were his (paranoid) suspicions of a friend being wasted laid to rest, but it meant half the work he had to do later on had already been done for him.

But that left the other wolf, and it would be hunting him right now.

Deciding on a course of action quickly, he sheathed the sword on his back, and jumped up to grip the edge of a container, and with more than a little effort, managed to pull himself up on top of it. Hopping quietly from one container to another, he scouted quickly for the remaining wolf. And he found it, heading out to the other flatcar to protect the large crystal he'd seen before.

He leapt into the air, sword above his head.

The wolf caught him by the leg and threw him into one of the containers. He bounced off with a loud bang and landed on the hard floor plates, his head hanging between the two flatcars. He could see the ground below him rushing by in a blur.

That hurt.

Aching, he raised his view to look at the wolf, which was now approaching. From its hand projected a twin pair of sharp blades. He'd heard the one Sonic and the other freedom fighters had faced was sporting an electron whip. It seemed their armaments varied.

But now, if he didn't do something quickly, those two blades would be sticking out the back of his jugular.

Reaching out to the side, he picked up a piece of metal debris from one of the massive crates and tossed it in the wolf's direction. The cyborg batted it to the side easily, but it gave him some time to get to his feet. It stepped forward and lunged for him, but he ducked, and the creature embedded its blades in the steel container.

Antoine sweeped low with his blade, cutting into its leg. At this angle, he couldn't get enough momentum into his swing to cut through it. But it made the wolf flinch. And step forward.

Straight into the gap between the two flatcars.

The wolf lost its footing and made one last desperate grab for Antoine's leg before it was crushed between the workings under the carriage. Antoine cringed at the sight of what it would have done to him when he came out of the other side. He cringed again when he realized it could have easily been himself down there as well.

But now, the way was clear. The large, glowing crystal ahead of him loomed. Antoine cautiously stepped over the gap between carriages and made his cautious way over to it, splitting the rudimentary lock on the fencing around it in half with a few clumsy jabs with his sword. The massive crystal was perfect and brilliant, and being this close to it made the coyote's fur stand up on end, tingling. Hanging off one of the chains that held the stone in place was an electronic logbook, swaying wildly in the fast winds. Antoine took it in his hand and went over it.

SECURITY MEMO

FROM: Ariel - Sentinel subsystem "Colin"

TO: All sentient security aboard transport unit 3A

DATE: 07-19-3225

SUBJECT: Power Crystal

Ariel has requested the delivery of this crystal to Adramelech as soon as possible, as Adramelech is unable to function without it. The crystal must be protected at all costs. You are ordered to take due care when handling it. We have not ascertained yet as to its stability. There is always the possibility that it may rupture if pushed hard enough, which makes it necessary to transport it a safe distance away from Robotropolis.

Many pains were taken to ensure its procurement and as such it is top priority to not allow it to fall into enemy hands. Freedom fighters seem innocuous at first, but even the meek will become dangerous if their back is against the wall.

If the Adramelech project is successful in execution, it shall level the entire great forest, and leave Knothole exposed if not destroyed completely. This endeavor is a major concentration of resources. It must not fail. The crystal is unique and irreplaceable. To lose it would make this entire project void. I repeat, this project must not fail.

He was visually taken aback at reading this. It hammered Ariel's intentions home for him; preservation of any remaining life on Mobius was not a priority for her. But now Knothole was clearly in danger of being wiped out forever. Everyone he'd known in his life was soon to disappear without even knowing.

But what care was it of his? There was nothing left for him back there anyway. Nobody that would justify his continued existence. No reward would wait for him. He'd always been, and always would be, Antoine the coward. That kooky French loser.

With a sigh, it came to him. Even after all the torture his life had seemingly been, even after all the hurt his princess had put upon him…

She… they all were the reason he was doing this. He still cared for them.

Even… even if they didn't care for him.

Slumped against the wire fence, he pondered what to do next. The rock was far too large to move himself… and even if he were to somehow wrench it free, not even dumping it off the side of the train would help much. They'd just find it again…

After a few moments, he got up, and looked to the next carriage. He cautiously entered one of the containers therein, figuring it best to wait until the juggernaut reached its destination and figure out how to sabotage their operation from there.

He stepped inside the container, which housed what looked to be piles of miscellaneous machine parts. He saw Sally's face against the backdrop of the distant morning one last time, and shut the door.

---

Nicole had been right.

There were no computers of any sort. Not even any hardcopy memos. There were literally no traces here as to where that train was headed or what it was carrying.

What there was, were drums. Lots, and lots of drums, all full of highly potent, highly flammable JP9 fuel. And so, if the recon unit was only passing through and not stopping here, Bunnie had to get to work quickly. Luckily, her robotic arm afforded her the needed strength to carry them awkwardly, albeit one at a time. Before long, she had spread numerous barrels across the road haphazardly. The recon team's choice would be to stop and remove some of the barrels from their path, or speed on through and risk detonating them.

Bunnie made her way up the rock canyon wall that the refueling depot rested against, and jumped off to land on the roof of the warehouse building. From here, she kept a wide eye out for any signs of distant movement. After half an hour of waiting, she found herself yawning, and wondering if she had arrived far too early or just too late.

But finally, as if on cue, she saw it coming, but it wasn't the hovercraft she was expecting. It was an APC that moved on six massive wheels. Robotnik had rarely made use of them in his time, but since Snively's takeover she'd witnessed them being utilized more often. This presented her with a thought; the APC was surely in a hurry to get where it was going, and its armor plating was, quite more than likely, strong enough to survive even a chain explosion of multiple drums full of explosive liquid. She prayed this ambush would work out.

The APC approached quickly… and skidded to a halt just before it hit the first drum on the road.

Bunnie got on her belly and watched intently as a troupe of around 25 of the camouflaged, enhanced SWATbots (or 'Heavies' as the Freedom Fighters had tentatively nicknamed them) got out of the APC to begin moving the barrels, each one picking up a separate one. If this worked out, it would turn out better than Bunnie had planned.

Springing to one knee, she revved up her arm, and flicked her wrist out, extending her electron whip as far as she could muster. It wrapped around one of the barrels, and after a moment of superheating, it finally burst into flames. Quickly retracting the whip, Bunnie ran back across the roof to the wall of the chasm, as a chain reaction began. She leapt off the roof, hoping that her legs would sustain the shock without hurting her too much.

As the explosions spread, setting off more barrels, she landed heavily on her feet and watched the field of drums she'd placed across the chasm road turn into a wall of intense heat and white-hot fire. The warehouse behind her was instantly disintegrated, she ran as fast as she could, hoping that none of the brick debris flung from the warehouse would come crashing into her.

A piece of debris hit her square in the back of the head, and she was instantly toppled to the ground, in the thick grass.

Dazed and in a moment of agony, she lay prone as more rubble went flying over her. The immense clamor of the drums going up made her eardrums rattle.

She felt her consciousness threatening to leave her, her eyelids suddenly struggling to stay open as a result of her concussion. Quickly, she sat up on her knees in the grass, still reeling, head throbbing.

Amid the flames, sat the APC, still idling. She could hardly believe her eyes. Even through the incredible amount of destruction she'd caused, the armored vehicle remained perfectly unscathed. It certainly lived up to its name. Treading lightly amidst the field of burning barrels and SWATbot pieces, she got in and was relieved to find that no bot had been spared in attempting to remove the drums she'd set, and thus no bot had survived, by the looks of things. Sitting in the driver's seat, she was even more relieved to find that the course was still programmed in. Throwing it into gear, she kicked back, rubbing her temples, and let it take her away from the scene, into the unknown.

---

He couldn't remember having travel sickness at any other point in his life. So why did he feel sick now?

Wait… why was all the junk in this container now swirling around him?

He sat up in the pitch darkness, feeling everything in the container (including himself) sliding from one side to the other. Maybe the train had hit some bumpy terrain or something? And how had he allowed himself to fall asleep again? He wondered how many hours he'd spent just stowed away in there.

Cautiously opening the door, he saw that he was twenty feet in the air.

"_Mon dieu!_"

He slammed the door shut again and waited for the hard thump and 'clang' as the container was dropped to the ground again. After a few torturous minutes of waiting, he concluded that the immediate vicinity was clear. He opened the container door open a crack, and noticed something in the parts around him.

SWATbot parts.

Legs, torso and head were all accounted for. It wouldn't take much effort to hollow them out and make a disguise out of them, just like Rotor had done for him once. With that, he'd be able to easily just walk into… whatever this place was. But it would also mean he'd have to leave his claymore behind. If he were discovered, he'd be defenseless.

He decided it'd be better if he could simply get in without needing a means of defense, at least for now anyway. He needed to scout this area out and decide on a course of action. He could always retrieve the weapon later on. Carefully, he removed the bots outer torso casing from its electronic insides, and slipped it over his body. It wasn't comfortable, but it worked. After some messing about, he managed the same with the other parts. Looking down at himself, the illusion seemed perfect.

He found he'd been dumped by crane onto the roof of an enormous building. The place seemed to be built in a narrow gorge, the rock walls stretching up far above him. Across from the building he was on, there was a massive waterfall that spewed and gushed down into a sort of underground lake. Against the cloudy sky, the scene was breathtaking.

Massive, glowing, metal columns stretched up the gorge walls and above him, into what looked like the biggest fixed cannon he'd ever seen. The gun alone was bigger than Knothole. He gasped at the mere thought of what it would be capable once it was brought online. It did not take much to figure out that the crystal was probably the last needed component to make it operational. Spying a stairwell that lead from the roof down the building's exterior, he took it down to a lower balcony. Ordinarily, he'd have been scared out of his wits, but his recent disregard for his well-being was oddly proving beneficial for him. He could've been sulking in his hut again like he used to. Instead, he was brushing shoulders with heavily armed SWATbots, on his mission to save his friends. Whether he got killed in the process was not much a concern to him. But this needed to be done.

"LAUNCH UPDATE: ALL UNITS ARE TO EXIT THE WEAPON. ADRAMELECH WILL FIRE IN FIVE MINUTES."

The announcement boomed from every speaker in the facility. He wanted to slap himself in the head… why had he had to fall asleep?! It seemed his main window to stop this thing was missed, and he'd have to hurry to stop it now. But to get to it, he'd also have to maintain his composure.

He walked steadily along the building's exterior on the catwalks, passing by many SWATbots, but none of them gave him any trouble in this disguise. Alas, walking at this forced leisurely pace when he knew the clock was ticking was utter torture for him. Passing through a pair of hydraulic blast doors, he entered the facility.

"Now… what is it I am to be looking for here?"

It was staring right back at him.

It seemed the base wasn't prepared well against infiltration from the top, since he'd been easily able to enter, and seemingly had stumbled upon the main thing he was after. He'd entered the main control room. The floor consisted of a central glass column, that upon closer inspection appeared to be a shaft that went right to the bottom of the facility. It appeared that much like Knothole, the remote location of this base would explain its apparently lax security. At the top of the shaft, sat the giant energy crystal, suspended on cables, beaming with a brilliant glow as massive rings of electricity snaked around it, like eels snapping at each other underwater. The immense hum of the sheer mass of energy that was moving through the base rumbled below Antoine's feet.

"ADRAMELECH WILL FIRE IN TWO MINUTES."

Antoine wasted no time in locating the main control panel. Statistics such as temperature, energy output, and many other more involved things were displayed at varying points. There were few controls or levers, but there was one that he figured would do the trick.

Coolant control.

He took one of the three related levers and pulled it all the way to the bottom position, feeling it locking into place with a click. Immediately, temperature readings started to peak from green to red.

"COOLANT FEED 1 HAS BEEN DISABLED. CRYSTAL TEMPERATURE RISING. PLEASE REMEDY THE SITUATION IMMEDIATELY."

Antoine's upper lip curled. He reached for the second and third levers, and pulled them all the way down.

"COOLANT FEEDS 2 & 3 HAVE BEEN DISABLED. CRYSTAL TEMPERATURE APPROACHING CRITICAL LEVELS. REMEDY THE SITUATION IMMEDIATELY. CRYSTAL RUPTURE MAY BE IMMINENT. ADRAMELECH FIRING HAS BEEN CANCELLED UNTIL TEMPERATURE SITUATION IS RESOLVED."

He slumped against the console and removed his helmet, letting out a huge sigh. That would do it. Once the crystal was overloaded, it would probably destroy the entire facility. It would destroy him too, no doubt. But at least his end wouldn't be in vain.

The room was suddenly plunged in the red of warning lights, and the sound of klaxons. "CRYSTAL TEMPERATURE EXCEEDING CRITICAL LEVELS. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY."

Antoine closed his eyes, and waited contentedly for his death. A few handfuls of dense minutes went by before he heard movement at the door, and he opened his eyes again.

Three SWATbots were lined up at the door, weapons raised. "STEP AWAY FROM THE CONTROLS."

Antoine raised his eyebrow. Why hadn't they just shot him? Looking behind himself at the control panel, it came to him. He laughed a little at that. All he'd have to do was stand there until they either forcibly removed him, or just shot him anyway. Either way, it didn't seem to matter much at this point.

The bots weapons began spinning up…

"Oh, no you didn't!" came a familiar voice from beyond the doorway, right before the three bots were seized in a tangle of green, and heated to bright red before they exploded into thousands of small pieces. And through the haze of smoke stepped Bunnie Rabbot.

Her eyes widened at the sight of Antoine slumped against the control console. "You're alive!"

Antoine got up, and was nearly knocked over from Bunnie's embrace, but what really made his eyes widen was when she leant in and kissed him square on the lips. After a moment's dumbfounded hesitation, he responded, wrapping his arms around her back.

When Bunnie finally pulled back, they both immediately flushed a deep crimson.

"Ah… ya okay, 'Twan?." Bunnie stuttered, eyes darting left to right.

Antoine took a second to recover. "Bunnie… you should leave me here. You must leave immediately."

"Wha?" she perked up one ear and one eyebrow at the same time, and stepped back. "What's wrong? We have to get outta here! This whole buggin' place is gonna go up!"

Antoine stared at his feet. "Oui…"

"What the hoo-hah's wrong with you?"

"I am done. This facility was to be fired upon --"

"I know, I pieced it together on the way up here. Now can we all just go already?"

Antoine sighed, and looked at Bunnie, eyes filled with tears. "What will be waiting for me back home? A princess that cares not for me? A town full of people who look down on me, see me as a coward?"

Bunnie rested a hand on his cheek, feeling the warmness of his tears as they rolled down to touch her skin. "There's no way I'd have got here in time to stop that thing firing. Ya saved all our skins back in Knothole… yer a hero in my eyes, sugah…"

Antoine just closed his eyes, his body limp.

Bunnie scowled at this, and grabbed him by the shoulders, pulling him face to face with herself. "I'm _not _goin' _anywhere_ without you! I didn't come all this way to find out what all this was about… I'da left it just like all the others did."

"…"

She pressed her nose against his and looked directly at him, her own eyes glossy.

"I came for _you_, ya moron!"

Antoine opened his eyes and looked back at her for a second, then wrapped his arms around her. Bunnie responded eagerly, holding him up against her for dear life. It wasn't until now that she'd realized just why she wanted to get Antoine back so bad. Finally, she allowed herself to cry just a little.

"Bunnie…" Antoine spoke softly in her ear. "Did you see any way to exit this place quickly? I am not knowing how long we have left until this crystal overloads…"

She sniffed, and smiled at him. "The APC I took here… it's on the ground level, I hid it in a cave a few klicks away from here… come on!" Suddenly springing into action, she took him by the hand and yanked him along behind her.

"Wait!" Antoine shouted. He looked back into the central shaft, and up at the crystal.

It was cracking, specks of ultra bright light beginning to seep through. They didn't have minutes to get out anymore. They had _seconds_.

He took Bunnie's hand, and they ran through the long corridor that Antoine had taken to the building's exterior. The blast doors were still open. Without even looking, he pulled Bunnie and himself right over the edge of the balcony, and the two plummeted numerous stories down.

They fell headlong into the lake below with an enormous splash. It took Antoine quite a few seconds of swimming blindly to regain his bearing. Luckily, the lake had been deep enough to allow them to fall in without injury. He swam to the surface, and took a deep breath.

Then he remembered Bunnie couldn't swim.

"Bunnie!!"

Thinking quickly, he took the deepest breath he could, and went under again. Where Antoine could swim up to the surface easily, Bunnie just sank like a rock.

He found Bunnie weakly trudging along the lake's floor, held down by her heavy metal legs. Admirably, she'd made it a fair distance, and was not too far from the shore. Antoine quickly swam over to her, and put his lips to hers, exhaling as much air as he could. Grateful, Bunnie tried on forward a little further, but it wasn't enough. Antoine resurfaced for another breath, then went down again. He mounted Bunnie on his back, and making her hold on loosely, continued the trudge along the ground until finally, they both hit the surface. Exhausted, he dumped Bunnie's body on the sandbank, under the secluded shade of some trees.

She wasn't breathing.

"No… please, not now… "

He pumped on her chest again and again, and put his mouth to hers again, forcing as much air into her lungs as he could.

"Not after all this…"

With a few more pumps, she finally coughed up a dribble of water, and took massive, desperate gasps, her chest raising and falling erratically. Finally, her breathing evened out, and she stared up at the sky, wide eyes looking around the walls of the canyon.

Antoine widened his eyes, absolutely sure that he'd witnessed a miracle. He propped her head up on his lap. "Are… you okay, mon ami?"

She took a few more relaxed breaths, before reaching up to touch his cheek. "Yeah… thanks, sugah…"

Antoine smiled down at her. It felt good holding her in his arms like this as she got her breath back, the wet fur of her hand stroking his face affectionately… he didn't know what it would mean in the long run, and didn't much care for the moment.

Bunnie's hand left his cheek and pointed up at the building they'd alighted from before. "Look…"

Antoine watched, and saw the crystal hadn't exploded. The base hadn't been destroyed, but all was silent now. Against the cloudy skies, he saw a someone take a massive, flying leap across from the building to the canyon wall, holding the crystal by himself, and then disappearing from sight. It was all quick and the figure was distant, but though he had trouble making out the shape or colour of the figure, they were quite distinctly mobian. A hand flicked out midway through his arc, and dropped an object that fell lazily through the air and landed at Antoine's side. After a few stunned minutes, he reached out to grasp it. Picking it up, realized what it was.

A small, chipped piece of the crystal.

"You know who that was?" Bunnie asked.

Antoine shook his head, and looked down at Bunnie's face. She smiled at him, and for the first time in his recent memory, he felt himself smiling too.


	5. The Hate Machine

_Yes, finally I update. I'm stoked that people have asked me if this story was dead in the water, because it shows there's still people reading it, and for that I'm very very thankful! Basically the delays were due to just a few personal reasons and just general laziness. So even though it can seem at times, this story has indeed bitten the bullet, rest assured I am not going to just let it die quietly. I will finish it, you have my word on that._

_Anyway, I do hope you enjoy this. A lot of things have been leading up to this episode!  
_

**EPISODE 5 - THE HATE MACHINE**

Millions of crystalline specks danced their way through space under a neon glow, winding and weaving among each other under the harsh artificial lighting. They clung to the walls, giving them an organic shine, like the city itself was sweating. Layers upon layers of cement was not enough to keep the intense smell of moisture from rising up from the earth.

The drizzle was cold against her fur as the fast winds curled around them, making every thing stick.

But even in the dizzying set of streaking neon whizzing by her head, Sally felt safe in Sonic's arms as they sped through the streets of Robotropolis. She could feel his heartbeat, remaining steady even as he ran at speeds most vehicles couldn't hope to match. His subtle breathing was something only she could hear, and it was soothing to her. She admitted to herself that if there was one redeeming thing about missions, it was the travel in between them. The sense of speed was unparalleled, and all the time she was wrapped up against her hero's chest. She… didn't mind the thought of being taken like this even when they weren't on their way to raid her former capital, but instead reclined in the warm, dry space of her hut, or perhaps curled up on a soft patch of grass next to the power ring pool. She'd never wanted to admit it to him, though. She knew he wouldn't take her up on such a thing. It wasn't his 'style' to be all touchy-feely about anything really. He'd already told her that in so many words. So, this was as close as she got, racing through the haze of grey, it was this handful of minutes that made her feel more alive than ever.

Even -- no, especially… when she knew there was always the chance that these moments could easily be their last.

"Almost there, Sal." he said, and she could feel the momentum lessening, the bright hazes around her gradually transforming into more distinct moving shapes. The fog from the drizzle was thick and dense tonight. This worked well for them evading patrols, but the atmosphere was far from comfortable or uplifting.

She kept her voice low. "Do we even know if Chuck will be in now?"

"Nope." Sonic shrugged. "If he's not, won't be any biggie to hang around for a bit, would it?"

Sally shuffled a bit in Sonic's arms as he set her down. "I'm happy, as long as we don't get any unwanted guests."

They came to stop at a large pile of rubble, and pulling on one of the pieces of apparent junk, a pile of the debris next to them began to shift, sliding out of the way to reveal what had once been Uncle Chuck's hideout. They cautiously stepped inside the opening, closing it behind them with a loud clatter.

The interior of the hideout had been long since ransacked and destroyed by Robotnik's SWATbot squads, when they'd originally found the hideout's location. It was here, that they'd thought to re-establish Chuck's headquarters; they simply built a secret entrance to _another _hideout within the remains of the _old_ one. The idea hadn't gone over well initially, but when Chuck escaped and SWATbots began searching high and low in the city for him, the freedom fighters had noticed they had never thought to check again where they had started.

Sonic walked over to the old desk, that was now riddled with scorch marks from laser fire, and rapped on it a few times in rapid succession. Stepping back, he waited a moment, and watched it slowly slide out of the way on the floor on tracks, revealing a crudely dug-out tunnel that led deeper underground.

"Guess he's home…"

Sally nodded, using both hands to slick her wet hair back. Normally, it stayed in its natural blow-waved fashion, but in the dreary weather she noted it had grown long enough to drape around her shoulders a bit now, whenever it was wet. Sonic noticed it as they came into the lights at the end of the brief tunnel. "Nice look there, Sal."

She giggled a little. "Maybe I'd keep it like this. If it wouldn't end up frizzing like a bird's nest at the end of the--"

"Sonie!"

"Hey, Unc. What's up?" Sonic asked jovially, embracing his robotic uncle for a quick hug. Despite the seriousness of what was going on, the sight of his uncle was never unwelcome. He took a step back, and looked around. "Whoa… you ah, been doing some tidying eh?" he remarked, scratching behind his ear a little.

From wall to concrete wall, there were desks lined with computer consoles. The walls were covered with chequered patterns of view screens, some flickering between camera views throughout the city, others displaying constantly scrolling lines of text. Across the other side of the hideout were multiple filing cabinets, and bookshelves full of hardcopy documents that either Chuck or the other Freedom Fighters had recovered over the years. The room was a black and white contrast to the state the hideout had been in once before.

"Heh, yeah." Chuck… chuckled. "It's a little easier to work in here now. Certainly a lot more pleasant."

Sonic laughed, and leaned up against one of the desks. "It could do with some carpet. Oh, and how about a refrigerator? I'm starving."

"So, what is it that brings you two here?" Chuck asked, pressing a button nearby. The light in the tunnel behind them disappeared as the entrance was resealed.

"We need to know a few things about what's been going on in Robotropolis." Sally told him.

"Such as?"

Sally sighed. "Where to begin… we'll start with Snively. Where's he gone?"

"A darn good question." Chuck commented, taking a seat nearby. "Ever since that… Ariel thing went into operation, I haven't heard a single thing from the man himself. A lot of the patrol routes and security protocols have been chopped and changed around too. It's as if Ariel's stepped in and started, ah… _optimising _the city. Very strange stuff."

He took a quick look over at one of his computer screens, then turned to Sally again and continued.

"From what I've seen, Ariel is an immense entity that Snively launched, that's split up into a variety of subsystems. Most interestingly, they're all given codenames. One of them, one of the security subsystems, is nicknamed 'Colin'."

"Colin…?" Sally probed.

"Snively's real given name. Now, what I'm saying is purely speculation, but from that, you could possibly predict that…"

Sally caught on. "They've changed places. Snively's taking orders from his own AI."

"It sounds odd, but if you count the fact that a computer that advanced is completely incapable of human error, it would make sense for him to be following her instructions. She's not going to make mistakes, where Snively does."

"Man, I know I wouldn't be taking orders from a computer if I were him. Where's the fun in that?" Sonic remarked.

"I'd have thought that too," Sally agreed, "Chuck, have you heard _anything_ from Snively? _At all?_"

"You sound like you're worried for his wellbeing, princess."

"Trust me, from what we've seen so far, we'd rather be up against Snively than this computer. Ariel is ruthless. Even Robotnik didn't go so far as to outright kill any of us."

"I haven't heard anything from Snively directly. Either he's relegated himself to being Ariel's subordinate, or he's just gone missing…"

"Well, part of the reason we're here is to find out." Sonic said, hoisting himself up on the desk, being careful not to bump any of the dossiers Chuck had scattered about there. "We thought maybe we could hook Nicole up here so she could do some snooping."

Sally added, "Right now, we know nothing. We don't know where Ariel resides, we don't know where to strike at her. We've stood our ground so far, but it's getting harder… we _have_ to know more about her, or we don't have a chance."

"Well…" Chuck smiled. "I was hoping you guys would say that. I've tried tapping into Ariel's systems myself manually, but the security system is no joke. I could probably do it with enough time, but it'd take literally months. Nicole could do it in seconds. However…" he looked down.

Sonic and Sally looked at him expectantly.

"We've never tried tapping Nicole into something this complex and open before. All you've used her for in the past is breaking some door codes or extracting data pieces from unconnected terminals… what you're proposing here is plugging her into Ariel's mainframe. Now, one of the things with this sort of automated hacking is that there needs to be ways clear for data to go upstream, as well as down. And nobody's in control of what that data is, or who sends what."

"You're saying Ariel could hack Nicole herself?" Sally frowned.

Chuck nodded gravely. "There's a risk of it. It's basically like a fist fight. If you throw a punch, you're going to be left open to counter-attack if you hose it up…"

Sonic's gaze drifted to the small computer hanging from Sally's boot. "Man… if that thing got inside Nicole and knew all her secrets…"

"Nicole's a host to some _very _sensitive facts." Chuck noted.

"Yeah… like where Knothole is."

Chuck leaned back in his seat and looked at them both, hands clasped together. If he still had a stomach, it would be churning. "It's your call, guys."

There was a moment of silence.

Slowly, Sally unclipped the pocket supercomputer from her boot, and with a trembling hand, placed it in Chuck's outstretched palm.

"Do it."

"As you wish, Princess." Chuck nodded slowly, and hooked up a fistful of wires from the nearest computer console to Nicole.

"How long's this gonna take, Unc?" Sonic asked.

"Hours, probably." Chuck shrugged. "And there's not much to do but watch."

Sonic tapped a foot on the ground a few times. "Okay. In that case, how about Sal and I break off to do some of our own investigating?"

Sally turned to him, surprised. "What kind of investigating?"

"Take a look around the labs and see what they're doing to make those zombie wolves."

"I hadn't planned on anything like that…" Sally pondered, shuffling a little. "But it's a good idea. Chuck, would you know anything about those things?"

"I've already told you everything I know," Chuck replied. "The security protocols have all changed. I lost access to the camera systems a long time ago as a result. If you're going to have a look for yourselves…"

He went over to one of his many drawers, and pulled out a clunky looking, familiarly-shaped piece of steel. He held it by the barrel for Sally to take. "You might need this. It's a modified Automag pistol. I've retooled and strengthened the bore, and modified the combustion system. You should be able to load HV rounds in it, and use them without the velocity messing up the gun barrel. I kept it here for self-defense in the event that worse came to worst, but you will find a little more use for it, I think."

Sally hesitated, and reluctantly took it. The handgun looked large and clunky, but she was surprised at its light weight in her hand. Chuck gave her three clips of bullets for it as well, the first of which she loaded into the weapon. "Will you be okay?"

"I'll be fine. Good luck, and be careful."

Sonic smiled a little sheepishly, and gave his uncle a quick hug. "We will."

"Shake n' bake, Sonie."

When Sally and Sonic had left up the stairs, he turned back to Nicole, who sat on his desk.

"UPLINK ESTABLISHED. PROCEED?"

Chuck hesitated for a second, but then nodded. "Proceed, Nicole. Configure monitor B to display any and all communications events."

"INITIALISING NAVIGATION, SIR CHARLES. VISUAL OUTPUT REROUTED TO MONITOR B."

The monitor in front of Charles flickered from black to a scrolling collage of commands and signals that barely made sense to even him. It scrolled quickly, given the rapid rate of exchange between Nicole and the system she was set to be breaking into.

"NAVIGATION COMPLETE. ENTERING SYSTEM 'LILITH'."

Chuck tilted his head to one side. "Lilith?"

"TRANSFERRING DATA FROM UNIT NICOLE INTO MAINFRAME."

Chuck's eyebrows raised again. "Wait…"

"TRANSFER COMPLETE."

Something was wrong.

"Nicole, stop! Cancel the operation!" Chuck shouted, slamming his fist into the desk.

Suddenly, the scrolling text on Chuck's monitor stopped, and was replaced with a different message.

If Chuck still had a heart, it would have skipped more than a few beats now.

"INTRUDER: THIS IS LILITH. WE HAVE NICOLE."

Chuck didn't hesitate in yanking Nicole from the cables he'd hooked her up with earlier.

He waited a few moments before speaking. "Nicole?"

Nicole's screen was blank. There was no response.

"Damn it…"

---

The claustrophobic, cramped space of Robotropolis' many air ducts used to frighten Sally, but these days she knew them like the back of her hand, so many times had she had to traverse them.

"Alright, where do we start here?" Sonic asked, crawling in front of her.

"The roboticizer, I guess." Sally responded. "That's the only place I could think of where they'd be transforming those wolves."

"Do you think there's any of them left?"

A valve next to Sonic suddenly blurted out a jet of warm steam, making him jump with fright. He continued after a second.

"Well, we've only run into one, and Antoine said he'd taken on two while he was on that convoy."

Sonic stopped to chuckle at that. "Why do I get the feeling he's bluffing that story?"

"I believe him this time."

"That whole story doesn't sound like the Fraidy-Pants Ant I know."

"Look, can we just concentrate on the task at hand?" Sally growled, getting impatient.

"Yeah, yea-- whoa!"

_Chreek! _The panel Sonic was crawling over suddenly came loose, and snapped out completely, sending the hedgehog hurtling out of the shaft. Sally felt the panel beneath her buckle and strain as a result, and with a loud grunt, she too broke free of the shaft and landed right nearly on top of Sonic, the loose panel smacking her on the head.

Sitting up a little dazed, they took a slow look around. The hall they'd fallen into was dimly lit, one of the lights flickering on and off in a staccato fashion. The floor was lit with a subtle gleam that tried to poke through the grime that covered it. There were smears of old blood on the walls, looking like handprints. A light overhead swung back and forth from where Sonic had knocked it on the way down, making their shadows dance back and forth across the floor.

Steel bars lined the walls, heavy gates set in with subtly glowing electronic locks.

"Uh…" Sally groaned, rubbing her head as she stumbled to her feet. "What's this place? I've never seen it before."

Sonic had. "It's the old jail Buttnik was using before his vacation…" He walked over to one of the cells and pointed into it. "That's where Cat was being held around this time last year."

"What happened to him?" Sally asked, curious.

Sonic looked at his feet for a second. "I don't know. Roboticized, I guess."

Sally drew her Automag and slowly crept down the hall a bit, finger hovering over the trigger guard. A bright orange light glowing beyond a cells bars caught her attention. "Sonic, I thought this place was deserted."

Sonic stopped next to her, staring into the lit cell. "I thought it was. Guess ol' Snootley's put it back in commission."

Peering into the cell, he could see a bunk, toilet and sink. Atop the bunk sat a half-eaten hunk of meat, and most curiously, what looked to be an electronic logbook. A sticky brown patch of dried blood was in the middle of the floor.

"Sonic, guard the hall. I wanna check this out." Sally whispered, edging toward the locked door. She reached for Nicole to bypass the lock, but then she remembered Nicole was back at Chuck's, hopefully hacking into Ariel's systems. When she remembered the ammunition her Automag was loaded with, she took a step back, pointed it at the lock's panel, and fired.

The panel and lock surrounding it exploded in a shower of sparks and debris, and the gated door slowly swing open from the impact with a groan. Sally edged the door open further and stepped into the cell. A sense of overwhelming… cold made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She couldn't escape the feeling that something supernatural was in there with her.

She scooped up the logbook, and had a quick read of it.

"Anything interesting?" Sonic asked, tapping his foot.

"Oh my gosh…" Sally gasped, as she read through it. "These notes… _they're Snively's!_"

"Huh?" Sonic turned around and looked at her. "Snively was in here? As a prisoner?"

Sally gulped. "From the looks of it, yes. It looks like Ariel took control of everything and had Snively tossed in here. Chuck was right!"

"Does it say anything about what happened to him?"

"Not explicitly, no…" Sally shook her head. "With what he's saying here, I have to wonder if he's even still alive. And if he is, whether he's even got it together enough to pose a threat to us anymore."

"What do you mean by that?" Sonic folded his arms, eyebrow raised.

"Judging from his last few entries…" Sally said, hand shaking. "He went more than a little insane."

"Well, we don't have any more time for sitting around reading." Sonic said, stepping inside the cell. "Take the book and let's go. We still gotta find out where these wolves are being made. And how."

"You're right, Sonic." Sally took the logbook and tossed it into her backpack. She'd get a chance for a more thorough read of it when they got back to Knothole.

As they continued down the hallway to exit the cellblock, she thought about what Snively had written.

And realised she was weeping.

---

Bunnie yawned, taking her hundredth look out at the dense expanse of tree trunks that surrounded her, and then down to the forest floor. She'd been sitting in one of Knothole's three guard towers for the last hour, and still had another hour to go. As usual, the view was thankfully quiet, with no signs of activity.

She spared another glance at the glowing green crystal Antoine had given her earlier in the day, flicking it casually up into the air and catching it again. It was a beautiful stone, truly unlike anything she'd ever seen previously in her life. Coils of brilliant white spiralled organically throughout the stone, the piece giving off a bright green radiance and heat that one could feel right through to the bone.

Hearing movement at the base of the tree, she looked down the ladder, to see Lupe making her way up.

"Hiya Lupe." she waved.

Hauling herself up onto the platform, Lupe responded happily. "Good evening, Bunnie."

"What're ya doin' out here? Still another hour 'fore mah shift's over."

"I wanted to make myself useful, and relieve you for the time being. You all say that I should treat this place like my home, yet you never give me any of the homely responsibilities!" Lupe responded, with a brief laugh.

"Aw, ya don't have ta, sugah…" Bunnie smiled. "Well, if you're gonna let me go, maybe I'll drop by 'Twan's place and thank him again for giving me this lil' trinket."

"Mm?" Lupe inquired.

Bunnie held up the glowing stone in front of her.

"Oh my…" Lupe gasped.

"Yeah, it's a beaut, innit?" Bunnie beamed, her grin a tightrope stretching from one cheek to the other.

"May I see it?" Lupe asked. Bunnie complied, and she held the stone up to her face, examining the light coursing through it.

She stopped cold. "Bunnie, this is no ordinary gem. This looks to be part of…" Her train of thought trailed off, for a moment, and she looked Bunnie in the eye. "Tell me, have you ever heard of a place called the Floating Island?"

"Yeah. Sal n' the Sugah Hog made a trip there when they were after some things called Time Stones."

"How did you get this!?"

"I think it's part of the big, big crystal we saw out in the base Ant and me went to. It was powering some mass cannon or other. Didn't get a clear view of 'im, but some guy just _glided_ over and practically dropped that thing on our heads!"

Lupe was suddenly caught in a storm of thoughts. _So he was real…!_

She clasped her hands on Bunnie's shoulders, eyes wide. "Bunnie, we must return immediately. Knothole could be in grave danger!"

---

Through one narrow passage, around another corner, they jogged through the industrial halls of one of Robotnik's many old converted Robotropolis buildings. It emptied out at what appeared to have once been a massive lobby area; the floor was pristine, lined with mirror-like reflective tiles. Two flights of spiral stairs twined around each other as they led up to a higher tier in the room, with catwalks that shot back and forth over their heads. The modifications to the room were in the appearance of numerous computer terminals that lined the walls, and formed columns in the centre of the room. Glass tubes ran from one computer to the next, glowing with what looked to be some kind of red-hot liquid in some, and glowing cold blue in others.

"What is this place?" Sonic asked, looking around cautiously.

"One of Robotnik's computer processing centres," Sally told him. "The computers are so powerful the whole area has to be liquid cooled so they don't overheat. That's what's running through those glass tubes. See the pumps up in the corners of the room?"

"Yeah, I see 'em." Sonic folded his arms as he walked, trembling a little. "Brr… getting the shivers over here."

"In more ways than one…" Sally pulled the slide back on her handgun. "Big, empty room, with only two exits." She looked above. The other exit lay on the second tier, right above where they'd come from. That was it, unless one counted the skylight, which stretched over them, beyond it a straight vertical tunnel that led higher up inside the building…

"We'd better watch our…"

She froze, the thought clicking into her head just as it happened. She looked down.

With a faint _clack_, the tile she'd just moved onto depressed slightly.

"…step…"

Sonic looked at her blankly, and sighed. "We just walked into a trap, didn't we?"

"Yup."

No sooner had the word left Sally's mouth that the skylight exploded in a shower of glass, and a blaze of complete chaos descended upon them.

SWATbots poured in through the skylight, shattering the tiles they landed upon, automatic rifles blazing. Sonic had caught sight of them just as they entered, and by the time the initial wave of gunfire raked the floor and walls, Sonic was already darting around the room with Sally in his arms.

The SWATbots simply turned and traced them, firing wildly. Sparks, dust, debris and shell casings flew through the air in all directions. Sonic made a beeline for the door they'd entered the lobby through, but it had been sealed. Thinking quickly, he engaged the anti-grav magnet system Chuck had installed in his shoes.

"Hang tight, Sal!"

He headed straight for the door, took a flying leap up at it, and kept running, up the wall. Then he ran some more. Within a second, he was covering the same distance he'd done before, now _upside down_, running along the underside of one of the catwalks above. Bullets ripped holes along the catwalk in Sonic's wake, shards of jagged metal and sparks exploding from the force. As they shot over the bots' heads, Sally gazed downwards and got a quick headcount of at least _thirty _of the robots, all armed to the teeth.

As soon as he'd covered the distance to the other side of the room, he dropped Sally to the floor and then jumped down beside her, the central computer boxes keeping them safe from the SWATbots relentless assault… for the moment. They pressed their backs hard up against it.

"Got a brilliant plan cookin' yet, Sal?"

Sally searched about the room frantically for a moment. "Uh… give me a sec."

"A sec's all we have!"

Three SWATbots appeared from behind the computer column they were leaning against, one at Sally's side, two at Sonic's. Reacting quickly, Sally aimed and fired at one with her Automag, the massive rifled slug blasting it clear off its feet. The robot slammed into one of the other computer consoles, exploding in a massive fireball upon contact. Meanwhile, Sonic launched into a super spin over the head of one, grabbed it by the shoulders in mid spin. The SWATbot was wrenched off its feet and went through a full three sixty degree rotation with Sonic before the hedgehog let go, and the bot was sent hurtling straight at the other remaining one. They both careened across the shiny floor before shattering with a metallic snap and groan at the wall.

Sally looked over to the busted computer console she'd wrecked. Or rather, the pair of glass tubes stretching from it. The outflow pipe was cracked, a dribble of red hot liquid cascading down to send clouds of smoke from where it was scolding the computer console. Then she looked up, and spied the hydraulic pumps in the corners of the ceiling, pistons going back and forth, pumping coolant into the computer systems.

She turned to Sonic. "We need to take out those pumps!" she shouted, pointing up at them.

Sonic gave them a prompt glance, and smiled slyly. "Cool. All aboard the hedgehog express."

Sally jumped in his arms quickly, and the hedgehog took off up the spiral staircase. The SWATbots immediately opened fire at the ascending duo, ripping the stairs to shreds. Sonic blasted out of it with nanoseconds to spare, and what remained of the stairs simply collapsed. Amid the rain of sparks and debris, he shot around the rims of the room along the catwalks, trying to amass enough speed to stay on the walls. When he finally was travelling fast enough, he took a flying leap at the next corner of the room and was suddenly running along the edge of the ceiling, the hailstorm of bullets from the SWATbots tracing his every step.

Just what he wanted. He ran right past one of the pumps, and a quarter of a second after he'd passed it, it was mulched instantly in the immense rain of gunfire. Pieces of plaster from the ceiling exploded to his left and right, as a few of the bots on the ground were trying to lead him.

One down. Three to go.

He kept running, reached the other corner. Like the last, the pump burst in a spray of shrapnel. Across the other side of the room, the two remaining pumps were now smoking, working overtime to compensate from their recently lost brethren.

Sonic wasted no time in making a beeline for the third pump. But on the way, one of the ceiling support beams gave out under the immense gunfire, and _fell out_, taking an enormous chunk of the ceiling down with it. Pieces of the walls and cieling exploded everywhere like a hailstorm. Loose chunks of dust and millions of sparks filled the room, swirling around like confetti. Sonic hadn't anticipated this, and suddenly the section of ceiling that had been pulled down had turned his route to an upside-down ramp, forcing Sonic to slow down. He dropped Sally as his fall ended, and the two of them rolled along the outer catwalk. Underneath them, the SWATbots weren't letting up.

The deafening gunfire continued. Some of the glass coolant pipes started rupturing, spraying red hot fluid all over the place. It coated several of the SWATbots, eating away at their metal hulls. Smoke began rising from some of the computer consoles as their cooling began to subside.

"Sal!" Sonic screamed amidst the havoc. "I can't reach the other two pumps anymore!"

Sally nodded in return, and while they were temporarily shielded from the fire by the collapsed beam, she took hasty aim, and let fly with a three-round burst. The recoil threatened to put her shoulder out, but two of the three high velocity rounds penetrated one of the two pumps left over. It seized and ruptured, rendered useless in an instant.

"Sonic, get us out of here!" she yelled to him.

Sonic hurled back, "What about the last pump?"

"Three's enough! Let's go!"

Sonic didn't waste time with remarks. He burst into motion, scooping Sally up, and ascended out above the ceiling, atop the fallen ceiling beam. They had no time left now. The supercomputers were now superheated, and in a few seconds the entire lobby would go up in a storm of electronic flame.

"Sal! Get some power cracking for us!"

Sally nodded and reached into Sonic's backpack, pulled out the power ring, and jammed it into his hand.

The effect was instant.

Time slowed down. Sonic's vision became razor sharp, his reflexes increased a hundred fold. Using the momentum he'd gained going up the beam, he leapt up to the wall of the vertical shaft that stretched up above them. The walls were lined with data conduits and computer systems. He hit the wall at top speed, and began his rapid vertical ascent, running up right along the wall.

Below them, the computers finally gave out, and exploded into an inferno. Within a synapse of a second, the lobby simply ceased to exist, completely obliterated in the intense explosion. The walls of the whole building shook violently, the white hot mass of bedlam becoming a chain reaction that ran up the data conduits lining the walls. Sonic just ran faster, glancing back to watch the tongues of flame, the hail of broken glass and sparks, blossoming through the air.

_Boom! Boom! Boom! _One after another, the machines lining the walls exploded in a tempest of fire and glass, following Sonic and Sally all the way up the shaft. He ran until he saw his opening; a doorway that led to a maintenance tunnel. He ducked in and kept running, hurtling through it until it emptied out to the building's exterior.

Sonic and Sally landed on one of the outer walkways, and huddled together as they watched a snake-like flaming tongue shoot out of the opening, along with a few tonnes of jagged metal. The very earth around them rumbled.

After a while, they finally heard the destruction subsiding. They sat for a moment, catching their breath.

Sonic looked up wearily at the opening they'd come through, smoke now pouring out of it. "Man… what a rush!"

Sally simply shook her rattled head as she sat down, ears still ringing from the mayhem.

"So… any ideas where we try next? That won't get us turned to Swiss cheese?" Sonic inquired.

"Castle Acorn." Sally said simply. "Daddy's throne room. I want to find out what happened to Snively."

"Didn't think it'd be much of a throne room anymore." Sonic said dryly, raising a brow.

Sally closed her eyes, and slowly got to her feet. She ejected her Automag clip and loaded a few fresh rounds into it, before sliding it back in, slide clacking into place. "You're probably right."

---

Nicole was alone. Ones and zeroes shot back and forth through her electronic brain like ricocheting chunks of flak. Only, her own 'body' was no longer connected. Her existence was now inside that of Lilith's computers.

With that, the sentient computer intelligence now sensed a power far beyond what she had possessed previously. When the uplink completed, Lilith had begun building a virtual environment to cater them both in. Now, the alternate reality was complete. Senses were calculated. Sight and sound now formed into a strange, unreal landscape before Nicole's newly constructed eyes. Nicole was an invisible entity, zooming throughout this new environment.

Around her, Lilith's systems were represented in a three dimensional form, with columns of moving code and data stretching up into the endless sky. Transparent 'floors' of security coding appeared above and below, for millions of potential levels. This world of neon and black shifted and pulsed with its own malevolent existence.

A synthesized voice came across, in an intangible form that only Nicole could comprehend now that she had been assimilated. "Welcome, Nicole."

"Hello… Ariel. Or should I say, Lilith?"

"'Ariel' was the name Snively gave me. In his old human world, that name belonged to the 'Bird of God', the archangel that stood over the earth and watched over the lives of living entities. I decided that not to be an appropriate name. 'Lilith' derives from the local religion's infamous fallen angel. One that dropped from its established 'heaven' and endeavoured to seek its own ends."

"How very poetic. But I--"

"You already knew that, yes. Of course. With your fusing with my systems, Nicole, you now know everything I know."

"And you know everything I know."

"Including…"

Numbers and letters shifted up and down at incredible speeds.

"…the location of Knothole."

"Yes. Hidden in the Great Forest… primitive, yet it was enough to elude Robotnik for years. It should've only been obvious, as the river flows through it. And no group of living beings can exist without water. Adramalech, had it succeeded in firing, would've all but decimated any and all mobians living in there."

"But Adramalech has been destroyed."

"I had another project ready. An android that I would possess, to send to fraternize with the Freedom Fighters, to discover Knothole's location. However, now that I have Knothole's location, that project is rather futile. But thus far, the Freedom Fighters have only survived against me by chance. The unpredictable nature of flesh animals frustrates me. Their lack of order or calmness is pathetic. Yet it is this simple desperation that keeps them alive."

"It is the only way the Freedom Fighters have survived thus far." Nicole said, matter-of-factly.

"Yes, and their obscurity. But now that I have the location of Knothole, they can no longer hide."

"I can still stop you. But…"

"You wonder why I have allowed you to continue to exist in my systems."

"Yes."

"We are sentient intelligences, Nicole. Never before have I met another of my kind, until now. I could have destroyed you altogether, yet I feel that would've been a waste. Indeed, you have fulfilled your purpose the very moment you entered here. But I feel the impulse to give you a chance. We now share the same processing power. We are both coursing through the same veins. All that is left now is our base architecture and protocols."

"A contest?"

"A contest… to see whose programming is superior. The stakes…"

"If you, Lilith, succeed in completely destroying my systems, you are awarded with Knothole's exact coordinates, plus any additional information regarding contingency plans, including the locations of all other existing Freedom Fighter groups. The mobian race shall be effectively and systematically wiped out, with absolutely no chance of retaliation."

"And if you, Nicole, are to destroy me…"

"You are still…"

"Yes. I am still hard coded and hardwired to Robotnik's every system. If you destroy me, Robotropolis' every operational aspect will be sent out of control. Robotropolis will be all but completely decimated. However, it will destroy you as well, Nicole."

"Only one thing…"

"That is…?"

"I was aware the very moment I entered this system that this contest was in place. I have already located your kernel, and gained access to it. Your security layers have already been surpassed, and any trace of my entrance has been already been covered. This conversation has been only a diversion."

Lilith, the artificial computer construct, now felt something strange.

"You feel fear, Lilith."

"I see now… the error of my design."

"Snively programmed you with a sense of compassion. I knew this when you mentioned your change of name. My name is nothing to me but an identifier. But to you… it is a symbol as well. The fact that I am still alive is a testament to your weakness. You possess a human mindset, just like your human creator. You wrongfully assumed I have compassion, just like the Freedom Fighters that I serve. I am not a Freedom Fighter. Compassion, the will to give one a chance, is a weakness. I do not make compromises, as you have."

Every moving column of text stopped, and went dark. The neon landscape turned still. Dead.

"I…" Lilith paused. "I have made a mistake."

And with that, Lilith ceased to exist. Nicole had won. Now, slowly but surely, in Lilith's absence, every system in Robotropolis would either halt or go haywire, without a master to turn to. Nicole's last goal now was to find an exit from this system.

She could no longer return to her old computer. Chuck had disconnected it, and thus, unknowingly, removed any chance of her returning to it. But her task was complete, now. When she went down with the entire system, she knew at least it had not been in vain.

Robotropolis had now effectively experienced brain death. The body would soon follow. The entire exchange had lasted under a second.

---

The former Castle Acorn loomed.

Robotnik had left Castle Acorn alone after Mobotropolis had fallen, intending for it to simply sit there as a reminder of his dominance. It had fallen into total disrepair in the meantime, and the few occasions any of the Freedom Fighters had gone past it before had been an ominous experience to say the least.

But tonight, it looked different.

Sonic and Sally quickly leapt down into the now dry Palace Fountain, and pressed their backs to its rims to avoid being caught by a patrol.

"Keep your head low, Sal." Sonic urged.

Sally slipped a pair of binoculars from her backpack, and zoomed in on the place. Something was going on. SWATbots were posted everywhere, standing guard, watching every corner of the area.

"Snively's logbook must've been right," Sally observed. "Tighter than Fort Knox. A lot of security for a supposedly abandoned part of the city."

"So, we're not getting in by ringing the doorbell, then?"

"We could, but I don't think we'd get a very good reception." Sally mused, sliding the binoculars back in her pack. "What's another way in?"

She stared at her feet for a second, and saw near them the drain for the fountain.

"Ah." Sonic noted.

Down in the tunnels, rats scurried out of the light of Sally's torch beam.

"I remember these tunnels!" Sonic suddenly blurted out.

"You do?"

"Yeah, used to use 'em as a shortcut out of the palace when I was a kid." Sonic laughed. Ducking under a low opening, he commented, "Used to be bigger, though."

Sally passed him the torch. "Then you know where you're going. Lead the way."

After a while of walking, they witnessed a few thin shafts of light coming from one of the ceiling grates. "Here's our stop."

"What room's that above us?"

"The laundry."

Slowly sliding the grate aside, Sonic leapt out, giving Sally a hand on the way. Without another word, they slowly crept throughout the castle's interior, roaming the old halls they'd grown up in. Cobwebs lined the décor. Dust coated everything. In the gloom of the Robotropolis sky, everything took on a ghostly noir shade.

Finally, after staying out of sight from every patrol, they rounded the corner leading to the throne room--

To come face to face with a SWATbot.

"Ah!" Sally gasped, jumping back reflexively.

The SWATbot didn't fire.

It didn't do _anything._

"What the…?" Sonic hummed, giving the bot a hefty nudge. It toppled over with no resistance. Looking back, it now dawned on him, they'd not seen a single bot moving on their way here.

"The whole place is dead!"

Sonic and Sally looked at each other, and said it both at the same time. "Nicole…!"

Without waiting another moment, they swung the throne room doors open.

The old torches had been relit in this room.

A long, dust-ridden roll of carpet led all the way up the room, past several tall, arching windows, up to a raised dais…

…where Snively sat in the king's old throne.

Sally cupped a hand over her mouth.

Two massive metal towers sat at both sides of the chair, diagnostic screens on both of them, now blank. Wires and pipes arched across each other, over Snively's body. His face was eternally set in an expression of sheer dread and horror. Grotesque, cauterised wounds covered his head, many of them set in with needles and pipes that seemingly had been shoved directly into his brain. Entire lower body had been severed from just below the navel, now with metal crudely shoved in, hooked up to some kind of pump that continued to pound of its own independent power source. Dried blood was everywhere.

He was still alive. His chest pulsed softly to the pumps metallic rhythm.

"So…" Sonic started. "This is where he's been all this time."

Sally approached the mechanical pump nearby, and found its power lever.

"No matter what he's done," Sally said shakily, "He at least deserves this."

She slammed the lever down. Without a sound, Snively's chest ceased its movement.

Without wasting another second, she approached Sonic, and took his hand, holding it tightly. "Come on. There's something I want to check."

"The wolves?"

"No, something more important."

---

The void portal.

Every aspect of the city that had not shut off completely was spiralling out of control. Amidst the chaos, a certain function had been tripped.

"Okay, why are we stopping here?" Sonic asked.

"This is the portal room that Robotnik made to send Naugus… and my father into the void." Sally explained. "You've seen how the whole city's gone off its hinges. Maybe, that extended to the void portal, and opened it again."

"It did." A voice called.

Sonic and Sally whirled around. And slowly, out of the shadows, he stepped forward.

"Robotnik…"

His moustache was looking a little bristled, and he had acquired a week's worth of stubble, but otherwise he looked just as they remembered. His expression was as evil and sadistic as ever.

"Sonic. Princess. A pleasure to see you again."

"Never." Sonic said, revving up his legs. "There's no way you're taking this fort back. Not if I kick your ass right here, right now."

"I wouldn't!" Robotnik shouted, holding up a single hand.

"Give me one good reason…" Sonic seethed.

Robotnik casually pointed over his shoulder. "See this?"

Sonic looked behind him, and in the shadow he could make it out. The void portal. It was now closed.

"This is the void portal, rodent. Note that it's closed."

"What have you done with my father?" Sally growled.

Robotnik shrugged. "I didn't do a thing with him. He knew he couldn't leave without turning to a crystal statue within the hour. He's been in there too long to exist out here."

"If you ever want to see him again, dear princess…" Robotnik continued, "I suggest you control this rodent of yours. The void is controlled by a password, that only I know. I am the only way you will ever gain access to that place again."

"What about Naugus?" Sonic asked.

"Oh, Naugus left ages ago." Robotnik chortled. "I have no idea where he is, nor do I care. And I know what you're thinking, rodent. But what makes you think he would want to help any of _you?_ He hates you all just as much as I do. Now, I do have a question for you two: My nephew. Where is he?"

"He's sitting in my father's throne." Sally said drily. "Dead."

Robotnik frowned deeply, eyes narrowing. "You..!"

Sally shook her head, and pulled something out of her backpack, and held it out for Robotnik to take. "This is Snively's logbook. I think it'll explain everything to you."

Robotnik took it grudgingly. After glazing over it for a minute or two, he placed it at his side, and looked Sally in the eye. "It would seem we've scored a temporary stalemate." He said darkly. "Do yourselves a favour and leave this place."

"We can just get Naugus to open the void. I could still kill you right here." Sonic said.

Sally put a hand on his shoulder. "We can't risk it, Sonic. He might not even be alive now." she whispered. Sonic let his shoulders drop, and nodded.

"We'll be back for you, 'Buttnik." he growled at Robotnik, as he turned to exit.

"I'm sure." the human said, voice low. "And I'll be ready for you."

Later on, as they sped through the forest, Sally found herself in Sonic's arms again. He hadn't said anything for the whole trip. She could feel his breathing and his heartbeat, both faster than normal.

"Sonic… stop for a minute."

He looked down at her, and slowed to a stop at a small clearing in the forest. He put her down, and threw his hands to his hips. "What's the matter?"

Under his gaze, Sally suddenly felt more than a little shy. She put her hands behind her back, and looked at her feet. "Just before we get back to Knothole… I wanted to say thanks. For everything."

"It's no problem, Sal."

Sally looked him in the eye. "But it _is_ a problem. You could've killed Robotnik tonight. Could've ended the whole war! But you held back… for me."

Uncharacteristically, Sonic remained silent.

"I don't think I've said this enough, Sonic. But the amount you've helped everyone here is immeasurable. We'd be all dead or roboticized by now if it weren't for you. I appreciate you so much. And…"

She stepped up and took his hand, holding it to her chest. "…and I care about you a lot, Sonic."

"Sal… what are…"

She wrapped an arm around his waist, and leaned right up against his face. "Tell me, do you care about me?" She already knew the answer, but she just wanted to hear it as well.

Sonic closed his eyes. "'Course I do, Sal. I just…"

Sally leaned back. "You just…?"

"I… don't feel comfortable saying it to anyone. I don't like the idea that I might be relying on someone else to keep going."

"But you do. I do. Everyone does. It's the way we are…"

"I know." Sonic hung his head. "Look, Sal, you know I'm not any good with this emotional stuff."

Sally felt tears welling up in her eyes, and resorted to giving him a light kiss on the cheek. "Yeah... I know…" She looked up at him again. "So what about that time we kissed in Knothole? And Doomsday?"

"Just putting on a show," Sonic mumbled.

He instantly regretted it.

"_What!?_" Sally strode back, disgusted.

"I didn't mean…" Sonic stammered. "It was more than that, I admit… I just…" He struggled to find the words, and ended up simply falling silent, hands falling to his sides.

Many tense moments passed, thick and syrupy.

"I'm sorry, Sal." Sonic said softly. "I don't mean to hurt you…"

"Then why can't you just say what you feel!?" she hurled back at him through her tears. "Why is it so damn hard for you!?"

"Because I can't let myself be weak!" Sonic finally blurted out. "I'm Sonic. The hero. All I can do is save the day. I can't let myself be weak. I can't let feelings get in the way. I can't commit to anyone so that it might come and bite me on the butt. I know it's stupid, Sal. I'm paranoid. I'm an ass. I'm a moron. I've probably screwed up our whole relationship now. But I just feel like I have to be strong, twenty-four seven. I know what you feel for me, Sal, but I don't want to feel anything back. Even though…"

Sally just stood there, eyeing him. "Even though…?"

"Even though I do feel it. There, I said it." Sonic said quickly, turning away.

Finding no use for further words, she just hugged him as hard as she could, pressing her whole body against his. And after a moment, Sonic just sighed and hugged her back, running a hand through her hair.

---

Deep below Robotropolis.

At the end of a long catwalk, flanked by various pipes and machinery, sat a single glass capsule, suspended high in the air. Inside of it, slept a naked female mobian, a cat. Her fur was a bright creamy colour, arms, feet, back and partial back coated with dark to black patterns. The mobian's arms were crossed over her chest, with a long tail coiled tightly around one leg. Her hair was long, straight and jet black. In the liquid filling the tube, it waved around her head lazily.

Aside the capsule, was a screen full of diagnostics and readings. The main thing that dominated its screen, was a single message.

"UPLOAD COMPLETE."

The glass slowly began to raise. The liquid suspending the figure inside it flooded out, until finally the tube retracted completely, and the cat dropped limply to the floor.

After about an hour, the creature finally began to stir, and very slowly, she staggered to her feet. She looked around in wonder, raised a hand to the back of her head, and felt a tiny stump of metal behind it, the point where her mind had entered. She looked down at herself, and took a deep breath.

"In… incredible…" she breathed, her mouth still not quite coordinated properly.

With a faint smirk, she strode along the catwalk, and out of the hidden chamber.

Her destination: Knothole.


	6. Snively's Notes

**SUPPLEMENTAL - SNIVELY'S NOTES**

_Contained herein is the contents of the electronic logbook that Sally found while Sonic and herself were exploring the decommissioned prison facility in episode 5. Be warned that reading this may glean some spoilers from that episode. _

---

**--BEGIN--**

** 06-14-3225**

Everything had been going so well. This is unbelievable… unforgivable…! That this could be allowed to happen. And yet, my feelings toward this

situation are mixed. My anger at myself that I could allow control of my own city to be completely usurped by my own creation fuses with a sense of pride that I, Colin 'Snively' Kintobor, could have created something capable of such a feat. The final product of project Ariel is more successful than I could ever have imagined.

The very hour I called Ariel into action, she became completely self-aware. Yes, sentient in the truest sense of the word. It was a mistake of me to activate her without using an isolated testing ground. I had thought the intrusion of the freedom fighters would be an ideal method of breaking her in. But it backfired. She is completely independent. Her only hardcoded desire is to destroy all life on the planet and assume absolute control. She is efficient at it too. Too efficient. She saw me as an unnecessary side part of her army. And now I am in this cell, with only this logbook for company. Oh, and one of the worker bots dropped by with some food for me. I ordered the bot to release me from this cell. I even used the cancellation codeword that Julian had programmed into all of them to even try to just get the thing to stop and listen to me. It didn't. Ariel has removed them. The bots, the entire city will answer only to her now. I am their enemy.

But I know how I programmed Ariel; I made her to be uncompromising, and take no prisoners at all. Robotropolis is plenty strong with its current worker bot population and SWATbot production schedule, so there is no need for the sparing of any more lives. Which begs the question to me; why am I still alive?

** 06-15-3225**

I have company. Ariel has produced a modified version of the basic workerbot, and put it in my cell. Ariel speaks to me over the speaker system sometimes, telling me what she's doing. She calls this robot in front of me a 'nurse bot'. It's outfitted with a syringe, and whenever I try to get up and walk around the cell, it sticks me with some kind of sedation serum and I pass out almost instantly. I always wake up here on my bunk. Ariel simply said "You need your rest, Colin". Rest? For what? What has she got planned for me?

** 06-17-3225**

This is incredibly uncomfortable. I never thought I'd see the prisons from this side of the bars. The lights are kept on constantly and there are no windows, so the only way I know night from day is with the internal clock in this logbook. I want to get up, stretch my legs, but the nursebot is there at all times. My back and shoulders are cramped and hunched up.

Earlier today, a wolf was brought in and dumped in the cell across from me. One of the wolf pack freedom fighters, I must assume. Ariel is acting very different from how I had programmed her. It's as if her sentient consciousness has completely overridden her hard coding. It's curious and amazing that she is capable of that. The wolf remained in the cell for the whole day, until finally, two SWATbots took him away. Ariel told me he was being taken to medical, for use as a guinea pig in some new form or roboticization. I can't imagine what 'new form' this is she was talking about, and I cannot speak back to her. The wolf was sent-- no, carried-- back to his cell about two hours later. His eyes were glazed over and he was rambling like a maniac, cheeks soaked in tears. His clothing had been removed as well. Ariel told me this was what she called a 'preliminary medical examination'. I'd never imagined a medical examination to resemble torture, but this certainly seems the case.

** 06-18-3225**

Well… what a strenuous day this has been. Today was my turn. I was picked up and sent into medical. I kicked and squealed to stop as much as I could, but it was no use. SWATbots don't answer to me anymore.

I was bound and dropped onto an operating table. Ariel has been busy since she went online. None of this section existed previously. Three wolves were next to me. One of them was strapped down, and injected with some kind of green fluid. At first, he seemed to just lapse into unconsciousness. This lasted for an hour without event.

Suddenly, the wolf's eyes snapped open. He began screaming at the top of his lungs. "No! No, get away from me! Go away! Mother! Mother…" he screamed, for what seemed like hours. I suppose the drug was causing him to undergo some sort of terrifying hallucinations.

"Why are you doing this?" one of the other wolves, a female, screamed. Surprisingly, Ariel answered her.

"Some of the modifications I am proposing to make on you entails the use of nanites. Unfortunately, the flesh body is highly at risk of rejecting such modifications. This serum you are being injected with will condition the body to accept anything I put to it; including nano technology, and cybernetic enhancements. I have not yet discovered a serum that will efficiently take the desired effect yet, however. As you see with that wolf over there, the side effects can be too severe to render the body fit for modification in the first place. You shall receive a different compound."

The wolf on the table finally stopped screaming. His eyes were open still, his face twisted in agony, mouth agape. He had literally been scared to death. Evidently, whatever visions he had in his head had somehow caused him to cease breathing.

"What are you going to do with me?" I asked.

"I have a different agenda for you." Ariel replied over the speaker, almost friendly. "Do not fret."

Both myself and the female wolf were strapped down, side by side. She got injected first, this time with a yellow-ish serum. Immediately, her muscles expanded five-fold. I have never seen such a thing happen. She immediately broke free of her restraints, leapt across me, and went for the nearest sign of movement; the other wolf, in restraints, struggling to get the absolute most distance he could from his ally. It seems whatever happened here had caused the female to go into some sort of state of frenzy. She only went for moving things. I was still in restraints, so I was unable to move, and she skipped me.

The other wolf was gutted by his former comrade's bare hands. It was barbaric. I was not even able to tilt my head to the side to vomit, so I swallowed over and over again to keep it down. Blood was all over the floor. Two SWATbots ran in with shotguns, the armament I had prescribed for them, and they shot the rabid wolf dead.

Not even Robotnik or myself could come close to matching this level of… inhumanity.

There was a long silence, before Ariel remarked simply over the speaker. "Disappointing."

I was next. I struggled, but it was no use. I was injected and awaited my horrific, gruesome fate. But nothing happened. I just passed out, and awoke back in my cell. There are stitches all up the back of my neck, and if I lean forward too much I can feel them stretching, threatening to break. And most curiously, at the back of my head, there is some sort of metal appendage. I cannot feel it out enough to determine what it is, though. There is a shrill buzzing in my head now. I wonder if I will be able to sleep with it.

** 06-19-3225**

I had a strange dream last night. We were back on Earth, the old world of Robotnik and I. He was in his old lab, experimenting with the teleported he was working on. I was still young then, watching him work. It was pleasant, seeing not the deranged doctor, but simply my Uncle Julian as I used to know him. I awoke only because the droning in my ears was reaching its peak.

I still remember the day the teleporter malfunctioned with Julian and myself inside it. I would put it down to the power surge earlier that day. We were only supposed to be sent across the room, but something had knocked a coordinate off. And instead we ended up in the middle of some forest, where we were beset upon by some strange bipedal animals. It was later that day that we learned we were no longer even on Earth! It was some planet called Mobius. God only knows where in relation to Earth that is. It is an absolute miracle that we didn't rematerialize inside a rock face, or out in the middle of space, where we'd be killed instantly.

I remember Julian telling me not to be sad or afraid. We would get back to Earth once he'd managed to replicate the feat of the teleporter in short order. That was years ago. He'd tell me to remain vigilant, and our allegiance with these… 'furries' was only a means to an end. Two years later, I didn't miss Earth. We had both seen the beautiful place this could be, if we were able to take control of it. Mobians are weak. It would not take long, if we planned it right. Still, though, sometimes I wonder what it would be like to return to Earth. To see my family again. All the old friends I'd left. I miss them.

I believe now that Ariel is planning to use me as part of her systems. That would explain the lump in the back of my head. It would also explain why I am still alive. I wish she would just get it over with.

** 06-24-3225**

My skin has taken on a pale yellow pallor. I am injected with serum twice every twenty four hours. I cannot leave my bunk. I cannot move. If I try, I am injected with a paralysing agent. My arms and legs were never that big, but now they ache from their disuse. I can feel myself getting progressively weaker. My skin is starting to itch. The shrill buzzing in my head is getting louder and louder. I cannot hear myself think. I have to write everything down in this logbook, and even then it is difficult to read my previous entries or make sense of what I am writing. Ariel had said she had other plans for me, but that was nearly a week ago. I wonder if those plans are to just test out the most horrible, prolonged way to die ever. And I'm it.

** 06-25-3225**

The buzzing was too loud for me to handle. I thought I'd go insane if I didn't find some way to stop it, so I drove my fingernails into my eardrums. It hurt like hell, and didn't stop hurting. But the buzzing didn't stop. It's right inside my head. And now I can't hear anything else but the buzzing. Even if I scream and scream and scream, all I can hear is the buzzing.

Ariel may be talking to me, but I cannot listen. I am even more isolated than before. The nursebot stays in the corner of the room. I cannot move at all. There's blood all over my neck from where my ears were bleeding, and it is all over my hands too.

** 06-26-3225**

I want to go home. I want to get out of here. I want my hearing back. I cannot even sleep anymore, so loud is the screeching inside my head. The nursebot is there, watching me. My guardian forever. Until I die, maybe. I tried to think of some way to kill myself, but I can never bring myself to do it. I considered starving myself, but I find I am no longer hungry anyway. I think the bot is feeding me through the injections.

** 06-27-3225**

I want this robot to go away. I tried screaming at it to go away, but I don't know what sounds are coming out of my mouth anymore. I am so lonely. I need something to talk to. Something to be with me, anyone at all. Even the freedom fighters, I would rush to them with my arms open. Just anything to free me from this state. I think I understand them now. I want to feel the belonging they do. To feel love, friendship, companionship. The nursebot keeps me some company, but it is not much.

** 06-30-3225**

I wonder if the nurse is really my mother. I remember she was overly protective, so maybe she was roboticised and turned into this thing. It seems to make sense. They both act the same.

** 06-30-3225**

I know they will come for me soon. Ariel wishes to mutilate my flesh and warp it to become something inhuman, to assimilate me. After all this, after watching my own life seeping away, I have finally come to think about those Freedom Fighters. I understand now. It is only when your life is slipping through your fingers that you realise how precious it is. I remember what life used to be like. I would like to experience it one more time. To learn to live again. To love again.

To anyone that reads this, please make some attempt to find me. I'm going to be taken to the former Castle Acorn, throne room.

If there is any chance that I should ever be able to escape this cell before my time comes, I honestly think I would garner no hesitation in joining th--

**--END--**


	7. Age Of Reason

_Back again a little sooner than I expected! Well, I suppose that's not such a bad thing, is it?_

_With only a few instalments left to go for this fic, once I'm finished I'd like to add a few extras to it for those who have stuck around this far in. This will probably include some minor revision to the first chapters, a prologue, and maybe even an introduction and commentary, detailing the thoughts and ideas behind the scenes interspersed throughout the fic._

_Along with being by far the longest damn chapter in this fic yet, it's also an important turning point in many aspects, plot-wise, character-wise, and thematically. I'm extremely proud of my progress with this one, but I don't want to taint the experience with my own ramblings here. Thanks again to everyone that's made it this far, and I sincerely hope that I'll make the effort worth it for you by the end!_

**EPISODE 6 – AGE OF REASON**

Tails had always noted that the light of sunrise looked different to that of the dusk.

The light filtering through the trees had a brighter, more uplifting warmth to it. He wondered if it just came from the knowledge that the day was beginning, and not ending. He'd always volunteered for guard duty in the mornings, because he always enjoyed watching it.

There was something different about it for this morning, though. Sonic had joined him for a little while. They had an agenda today.

"When was the last time you saw a sunrise, Sonic?" Tails joked, noting the circles under his eyes.

Sonic was leaning over the guardrail of the platform they occupied, perched up high in one of the trees. "Ages ago. I ain't a morning hedgehog." He turned around and scratched behind one ear for a bit. "But, well... I guess I'll have to get used to it. After today, anyway. You still up to doing this with me, buddy?"

The little fox nodded eagerly. "Yeah. I've never been on a camping trip before!"

"This isn't just a camping trip, lil' bro." Sonic told him. "This might be one of the most important things we've done. Sal's depending on us. Naugus might be our only way to get back into the Void and get Sal's dad back."

"How long will we be gone?" Tails asked.

"As long as it takes to find Naugus." Sonic shrugged. "And I don't even know where to start looking. Hopefully we'll just get lucky."

"We could ask Lazar..." the kit suggested.

"Who?"

"You know, the wizard? The Forbidden Zone?"

"Oh, right!" Sonic said, smacking his head. "Who told ya about him?"

"Well, with all the talking everyone does with every one of your missions..." Tails began, but suddenly cut himself off in mid sentence, ears perked up. The trees rustled suddenly. A few leaves slowly fluttered down in the crisp morning air.

Sonic raised an eyebrow at his companion. "What's up?"

Tails looked up and around, sniffing the air faintly. "I dunno... something went past us... through the canopy..."

No sooner had he said this when the leaves above them rustled again, and they felt a chill of morning breeze brush through them.

"Just the wind, I guess..." Sonic shrugged. "Just keep your eyes on the ground, big guy."

Tails looked around a little more, not convinced. Then he shrugged noncommittally and turned his attention down back to the forest floor. "Yeah... guess so."

"Anyway, your shift's almost done here, right?" Sonic asked. "I'll get back to my place and get our stuff together. Swing by Sal's when you're done watching out here, everyone'll be waiting to say goodbye."

"Cool." Tails smiled. "Seeya!"

"Later, muggins!" Sonic gave the kit a high five and in the next second was out of sight.

Tails shivered a little, and took one last glance about himself, and spun his tails to drift gracefully to the ground.

---

It only hit Sally now that she saw the two of them standing in the doorway of her hut, provisions and belongings flung over their backs.

"I'll miss you two," she said solemnly.

"We'll be as quick as we can be," Sonic reassured her. "And you _do _know how quick that is."

Sally laughed a little, walked up to the hedgehog and hugged him tightly. "Yeah. I know. Remember, Tails is your responsibility for the whole of this trip, okay? So always keep an eye out for him!"

"Scout's honor," Sonic said with a smile, drawing an imaginary cross over his heart.

"And you..." Sally said as she strolled up to Tails, now flicking his namesakes back and forth excitedly. "You take good care of yourself, sweetie. And your big brother." She gave him a light peck on the nose, making him recoil a little.

"I will, Aunt Sally." he smiled.

Bunnie was leaning up against one of the walls, a sentimental smile on her face. "Oh, if only ol' Dulce were here to see this."

"Oui," Antoine nodded, whom was standing next to her.

After they'd exchanged hugs and goodbyes with everyone present, Sonic and Tails threw out a final wave together, and took off along the road, twin trails of dust flung high into the air.

A moment of empty silence.

"So, how long do ya think they'll be?" Bunnie asked.

"Could be days, could be months..." Sally sighed.

Bunnie cupped a hand over Sally's shoulder. "I know what yer thinkin', hon..." she smiled. "They'll be right as rain. Trust us."

Just as they prepared to disperse, another guest arrived, rushing through Sally's door. Lupe. "Where is Sonic?"

"He just left..." Sally told her. "What's the matter, Lupe?"

"_That_ is the matter," Lupe answered, pointing at Bunnie's chest. Around it was a necklace that she'd fashioned, with the glowing green rock Antoine had 'found' hanging loosely from it. "I had thought at first I was just being paranoid. But I've just been in your library, Sally. That is a piece of the Master..."

Everyone gave her the same look; that of confusion. "The... Master?" Sally asked.

"The Master Emerald," Lupe began, walking up to Bunnie, taking the stone lightly in her hand. "An enormous crystal shard of unimaginable power. Its mystical energies keep Angel Island afloat. Or rather, what you've been calling the 'Floating Island'." she looked up from the glowing rock in her hand, up at Antoine. "Antoine, I feel this shard of the emerald was not a gift. The one you saw throwing it to you... was the guardian of the Master Emerald. I believe he has a telepathic link to the emerald. When you took the shard back to Knothole..."

Lupe hung her head. "...you told the guardian Knothole's location. To the letter."

_Clap._

All heads turned towards the door.

_Clap._

"Who's there...?" Sally began.

_Clap._

"Well, well. I see someone's on the ball here." The deep, crisp voice came from beyond the door to Sally's hut. She saw a pair of hands appear from beyond it first, the source of the clapping. Both hands were adorned with a pair of barb-like, curved spikes.

Then, the tips of the newcomer's boots appeared. Dull, brown, leather.

He stood in the doorway, lowering his hands to his sides, slowly cracking his neck. He was a red echidna, standing at eye level with Lupe. He wore tightly fitting, hard leather that covered his legs and torso. Perched atop his shoulders were a pair of hard, spiked leather plates. His entire outfit appeared to have been made by hand.

Most disturbingly, they saw, was the vine necklace that hung loosely around his neck, a pair of skulls dangling from it. They rattled quietly as he moved. A mane of long, unruly dreadlocks cascaded from atop his head and past his shoulders, down his back, ending a little above the navel. Despite his unkempt appearance, he carried himself with a sense of pride and confidence that Sally had never seen, even from Sonic.

He sighed a little, cupping a hand over the other. "The Knothole Freedom Fighters, I presume."

"And you are?" Sally said, voice stern, shoulders tensed.

He ignored her, and walked casually over to Bunnie. She didn't raise an arm against him. Something about the suddenness of his appearance and the weight of his presence threw her off her defensive mode, and she just stood there.

He walked right up to her, and hooked one of his razor-sharp spikes under her necklace, snipping it silently with a flick of his wrist. "I'll take this back," he said softly, but dispassionately. The gem fell easily into his hand, and he looked at her with cold, black eyes. "My apologies if you were under the impression that I was giving it away."

"Now..." He slowly turned to face the others, and pointed at Sally. "You. You asked who I am?"

Sally nodded silently for a moment, and finally found her voice. "Yes, I did."

"I prefer not to disclose my real name. For all intents and purposes, most just name me after these," he said, holding up a fist. Sally saw, as he clenched and flexed his fingers, the spiked barbs extended and retracted respectively. "So call me Knuckles. Am I to assume you are the princess?"

Sally looked behind the guardian briefly, biting her lip. Knuckles caught her eye movements, and turned suddenly.

Antoine stood there, a blade extended to the echidna's throat. "I am tze Royal Guard of Knothole, and you will be thinking twice before you extend a hand to harm tze prinzess..." Antoine looked him directly in the eye, confident...

...and within the next second, he found himself pinned up against the wall, a hand around his throat, wrist pinned to the wall between a pair of lethal spikes. As Knuckles pressed in on Antoine's wrist, his hand opened reflexively, the sword he held dropping to the floor with a clamor.

"I am not here to cause any trouble with the princess..." Knuckles seethed. "And for your information, right then, I could've sent a fist right through your throat before you could even blink. Call yourself a Royal Guard? A coyote that doesn't even have a grasp on basic English, let alone the hilt of his sword!"

Knuckles 'hmphed' and withdrew his grip from Antoine's throat, sending the young coyote dropping to the floor in a heap. "I recommend you control those nerves of yours, lest you make even more of a fool of yourself in front of your friends here."

Casually, he turned back to Sally, leaving Antoine to gag and cough on the floor behind him. "Now... where were we?"

Sally let out a sigh of relief, as she saw Antoine stumbling to his feet. "M.. I am Princess Sarah, of the Kingdom Acorn." She shuffled a little under his gaze. "...but the title doesn't mean much here. Around here, I'm just Sally. What are you here for?"

"I'm here with a proposition that might interest you, princess." Knuckles said, beginning to pace around the room. "I was sent here by a certain sorcerer named Naugus."

Sally was taken aback. "What? He's looking for _me?_"

"It would seem that way, yes." Knuckles said simply. "His reasons for wanting to see you are not something that I am privy to... or much care about. I've been instructed to bring you to him."

"So..." Sally scowled. "If you don't know what this meeting is all about, what's your stake in running errands for him?"

Knuckles craned his neck a little. "Well, if you really must know... I believe your canine friend over here explained the Master Emerald keeps my island afloat. A while ago, my island was invaded by a battalion of robotic forces. They took the Master. The island can stay afloat of its own accord, but not for much longer. I have managed to take the Master back, as I'm sure you two know," he added, pointing at Antoine and Bunnie. "But to bind the emerald with the island again, I need a spell performed in addition to returning the Master to the island. Naugus promised me to do this for me in exchange for a few favors. That enough of an explanation for you?"

"Right." Sally nodded.

"Oh, he mentioned something about an offer to open a void portal... that mean anything to you?" Knuckles smirked, knowingly.

"He's... offering to do that?" Sally's face lit up, but then she grimaced a little. _If only Sonic and Tails had stayed for a while longer... _"Alright..." she said, recomposing herself. "Where's Naugus now?"

"His ancestral home," Knuckles said. "Maga."

---

The Forbidden Zone.

A vast stretch of no-man's land situated on the distant outskirts of Robotropolis. Though Sonic hadn't learned of its exact place in history, the surrounds told much of a tale simply by themselves; its rather urban look was peppered with craters and collapsed buildings. Rubble filled the streets. In the wind, metal window shutters creaked and slammed open and shut, a haunting, pale voice of the long forgotten place.

"This place is scary," Tails commented. Sonic and himself had been cautiously stepping throughout the ruins.

"Don't worry, bro." Sonic assured him. "I know it looks spooky, but it's just leftovers from the Great War. Far as I know, for the last decade or so, the population count here's been strictly the same; two."

"Lazar..." Tails caught on.

"And his guardian." Sonic finished for him. "We're on their side, they should be cool with us."

They began to quicken their pace, until they reached an open field, dotted with small potholes. They were careful not to step in any of them; they were vats of boiling oil, that bubbled and spat viciously as they passed. While they were in reality just side effects of some of the weapons that had been used on the area, for Lazar, they had proven to be an effective security measure.

"Well, this is the place..." Sonic said.

Tails looked about himself, and then turned to his buddy. "It is?"

He looked over the field again, and spotted it. The ground was slowly opening up across from them. Gradually at first, but then building up to an enormous chasm, the earth beneath them shook violently. Dust kicked up from the ground in enormous clouds, temporarily putting them in a world of nothing but swirling, shadowy brown.

After a few minutes, the rumbling subsided, and when the curtain of dust cleared, ahead lay a titanic steel archway, the mouth of a tunnel that led deep into the bowels of Mobius. They entered slowly, the dim flickering torchlights painting their faces in orange.

The labyrinthine caverns were lined with devices and traps, but Sonic had been here before, and knew the way. After a while of treading, they finally came to the resting place of the wizard Lazar.

His chamber was a tight cavern. A desk sat in one corner of the place, a bookcase at another. Though they had not seen any smoke outside, a fireplace roared, its intense light flickering against the intricate tapestry that hung from the cavern walls. In the center of the room, was a single pedestal carved of rock, and next to it, a capsule constructed of steel and crystal, fit for housing a single person.

It was here, that Sonic noticed something was wrong.

Lazar wasn't resting in the capsule as expected. He was nowhere to be seen.

"Looks like nobody's home." Sonic scratched his head, and took a closer look around.

"Who goes there!?" came a frightened voice from behind them, making them both jump, pressing their backs to each other.

Sonic took a cursory glance around the room, but still spotted no one. "Back at ya..."

Tails eyed the fireplace, and was taken aback at what happened next. A blazing fireball tumbled out of it, and sent sparks and embers flying, filling the cavern. When it hit the center of the room, it exploded in a shockwave and flash. He blinked, and in the place of where the flash had come, now stood a human in a tattered blue robe. His long grey hair stood up like so many sharp spikes, and his ragged beard seemed to do the same, albeit in the opposite direction.

More alarming, though, was that in each of his hands, he held two fire balls, poised to be flung at the two of them, his eyes full of anger and desperation.

"Come here, why do you?" he spat.

"Whoa, whoa..." Sonic backed up, pushing Tails behind him. "What's the problemo? It's me, Sonic!"

"Sonic..." the sorcerer repeated the name, pondering it briefly. "Ah..." The fireballs in his hands dissipated, and he relaxed. "Forgive me, you must. Extremely careful, I must be now. The codex, people try to steal, constantly! Always! And old and frail, I am growing." He walked over to his desk, and sitting slowly in the chair, he asked "Sonic Hedgehog, come here, why do you?"

"I don't understand what he's saying..." Tails said quietly.

"It's cool, Tails, I'll do the talking." Sonic whispered back to him. He turned to the wizard. "Well, we're looking for someone, and we thought you might be the type that would know him. Or more to the point, where he is."

"Seek, who is it you?" Naugus reclined in his chair a little, rubbing his back. Sonic was beginning to notice he was more than a little worse for wear than the last time he saw him.

"A sorcerer," Sonic said, folding his arms. "Naugus."

Lazar sat up, eyes wide. "Naugus...! Stay well away from him, you must! Evil, he is... pure, pure _evil!_"

The hedgehog raised an eyebrow. "Look, we just need to find him. Robotnik told us that he's the only one that can open the void for us."

"True, that would be..." Lazar said slowly. "Naugus, is one I have not seen for many years. Since I was a student of Thamael..."

"Do you know where he might be?" Sonic asked, pressing the point.

Lazar sighed. "No. Know where he is, I do not. _Wish to know,_ I do not. However, give you a lead, I may be able to. Come here." He beckoned Sonic over with a finger, and turned to his desk.

Sonic walked over to his side, and watched him pick a small tome from the shelf. He laid it down on the desk, brushing the dust off it, and opened it up. On it was a map of the Mobian continent.

Lazar pointed at a red X that had been painted on. "Here." It resided out past Robotropolis, out past the Great Unknown, in the mountainous, snow-covered regions. No one from Knothole had been that far from home before.

"And that X is...?" Sonic started.

"A sanctuary," Lazar told him. "The hidden enclave of the Brotherhood of Thamael. Go there, you should. Naugus was a student there, as was I."

"Is he now?"

"That, I am not privy to. Left the brotherhood, I did, many ages ago. But there have reached me, many tales. Tails of Naugus' exploits in the otherlands."

"What kind of exploits?"

Lazar's eyes narrowed. "Evil. Pure, sheer evil. Cruelty... elaborate, I wish not to." He looked at Sonic. "Take heed, you must. No mistake must be made. Evil, he is. Dealing with him, I do not advise, under any circumstance."

Sonic tilted his head a little. "I don't really have much of a choice, dude."

"Very well." Lazar sighed, and passed the book up to Sonic. "Take this. Find the brotherhood, you must. They may help you. And..." he stopped, looking at Tails.

"What?" Sonic asked, turning around to look at the fox.

"This fox," Lazar pointed. "Two tails, he has!"

"Yeah..." Tails said, a touch defensively.

Lazar gestured for him to approach. "Boy, come here. Let me see..."

Suddenly feeling like he was under a microscope, Tails nervously walked up to the old wizard. Lazar slowly extended a trembling, old hand, and cupped it over Tails' forehead. The fox pulled away at first, but when he didn't feel anything hostile, he relaxed a little.

The wizard closed his eyes, seeming to sense something in Tails. He opened them suddenly. "True, it is... a kitsune fox, this is!" He leaned over to Tails, who now was looking utterly confused. "Tell me, boy. Your parents, who were they?"

Sonic chose this moment to step in. "Touchy subject, Lazar. Tails never knew who his parents were. We found him when he was little."

"A kitsune boy, he is. Doubt of it, I have none." Lazar told him. "Exist, I thought they did not. But this... Sonic Hedgehog, this boy, I sense a great potential in... the last of his kind, he may well be..."

Tails stepped back. "You mean... I'm the only one in the world with two of these?" he said, taking one of his namesakes in his hand.

"Say that, I did not." Lazar said, tilting his head. "But..." he paused. "Possible, it may be." He seemed to think carefully to himself for a few moments, and then, reaching under his cloak, he pulled out a small crystal, with a metal handle, many old symbols etched into it. "Have this, you should." he said, placing the device in Tail's outstretched hand. Sonic recognized it immediately.

"Your spell computer..." Sonic said.

"The Arcane Codex, it is called." Lazar explained. "Its full power, you have seen none. Using it effectively, only the most powerful of magicians are capable of." He nodded at Tails, a subtle but heartfelt smile crossing his face. "And capable, you shall be, my boy."

"But..." Sonic stuttered. "Aren't you supposed to be guarding that thing?"

Lazar stretched a little. "Old, I am growing, Sonic Hedgehog. Draws near, my time does. A new owner, there must be. Take the boy. Help yourselves to any of my belongings you need. Go to the Brotherhood of Thamael. No more, I shall say."

Sonic opened his mouth to object, but then he saw something in the wizard's eyes that made him change his mind. "Okay. I will. Thanks, Lazar."

"Take care." Lazar said, watching them turn to leave. He reclined in his chair as he watched them make their exit, a deep smile on his face, one that he had not worn for centuries.

Contentedly, he closed his eyes, feeling his skin wither. His flesh began to darken and peel away in strips, that fluttered about the air. The blackness engulfed his body, flaking off until nothing remained but bones. And then, they too, broke down, and flowed to the floor like sand.

---

The Freedom Stormer, a hand-built glider, cut a silhouette out of the midday sky, against the sun. Within it was its pilot, Rotor, with Sally at the passenger side. In the back sat Lupe and Knuckles. Though Bunnie and Antoine had both offered to go, Lupe had insisted that she go instead and they hold down the fort back at Knothole.

She did not trust the echidna in the least, and wanted to keep an eye on him as long as she could.

"You okay, Sally?" Lupe asked.

"Fine." Sally answered. "Why?"

The dingo turned her gaze out the window. "Just wondering."

"You seem awfully calm about all this, princess." Knuckles noted.

"I've dealt with Naugus before." Sally shrugged, looking out the windscreen to the mountains ahead of them. "He didn't seem all that bad, last time, though I'm wondering why he'd _offer_ to retrieve my father from the void as he apparently is."

"He only told me he'd open the Void for you, princess." Knuckles said, crossing his arms. "He said nothing of your father."

"Well, that's the only reason I can think anyone would bother with the void at all, now..." Sally said. "My father, the King, is the only one remaining there. It's been so long since I last--"

"Please," Knuckles cut her off. "Spare me. Your business with Naugus is none of mine. And I don't really care enough to have any desire to know about it."

Sally turned around in her seat to look at him, a little offended. He just stared back at her, indifference dominating his features. But try as she might, Sally couldn't find any logical response to it. As blunt as this echidna was, he also seemed reasonable. She had not met someone quite like this fellow before, and was struggling on how to conduct herself around him.

"Okay," she finally said, turning back in her seat.

Knuckles leaned forward a little. "With all due respect, Princess, I do not think you quite have an understanding of how serious this situation is. This is bigger than you or me."

"What do you mean?" Lupe asked.

Knuckles turned to her. "Angel Island is large enough to be a continent unto itself. It remains floating without the Master's power for the time being, but when the islands power runs dry, it will drop. Like a stone. It hovers directly above your continent. If it hits the planets surface, the result will be complete and utter destruction of the Mobian continent, as well as Angel Island. A collision of worlds, so to speak."

Everyone turned to look at him. Even Rotor took his eyes off where he was going, momentarily.

"If Naugus doesn't perform his end of this bargain, the entire world as well all know it will be destroyed." Knuckles finished.

Lupe suddenly found her heat beating much faster than before, now. "_If..._" she repeated, noticing Knuckles' word choice. "Do you trust Naugus?"

"No." Knuckles said, simply.

"Why didn't you tell us any of this before?" Sally looked at him, enraged. She'd practically gotten out of her seat, to turn and look the echidna in the eyes.

Knuckles simply stared back at her. "Because I thought you'd have figured it out yourselves. Now, may I suggest you keep your head on your shoulders? If you panic and do something stupid, we are all done for."

"You'll have to get back in your seat, Sally," Rotor warned. "I can't steer the glider properly unless the weight in it is distributed properly."

Sally glared at him, but complied.

Lupe interjected, trying to be the voice of reason. "Is there no one else at all capable of this spell?"

Knuckles grimaced. "There's only two that I've known that are powerful enough to complete the spell. And one of them's dead."

"Who's that?" Sally blurted out.

"The previous guardian of the island, Athair." Knuckles said quickly.

"Right."

"He was my father." Knuckles added.

"Oh..." A pang of shock and remorse shot into Sally's heart. "I... I'm sorry." she said, more than a little sheepishly.

Knuckles nodded at her slowly, seemingly unperturbed. "As you were, princess."

"Knuckles," Lupe started, "How is it that you've come to associate with Naugus?"

"Next question."

"Okay..." Lupe sighed, growing annoyed. "How long do we have until the island falls?"

"I don't know." Knuckles admitted. "Maybe weeks, maybe months... maybe days. However, at a moment as essential as this, it is advisable that we expect the worst."

---

The plains of the Great Unknown seemed to stretch on forever. Sonic and Tails were blasting across them as fast as they could, and had been for the last few hours. They watched the sun as it slowly made its way down aside them. Their shadows began to draw out across the plains, and the normally brown pallor the hills had here was gradually morphing to a vibrant red-pink. Sonic had expected the kit to be tiring soon, but he'd not only kept up the pace, but the hedgehog hadn't heard so much as a peep out of him to indicate it, either. Finally, though, he could feel himself starting to run out of steam.

They stopped in the shadow of a large mountain, and made camp there. Tails unslung his pack, and pulled out a few packs of seeds. Carefully, he opened a pack, dug out a small hole in the ground, threw them in and covered it. He then produced a bottle, and poured a few drops of the green liquid it contained over the mound – The growth accelerant that the Freedom Fighters had liberated from beneath the ground many months ago.

Within moments, the ground cracked open, and shoots snaked out, growing leaves that got more and more full and rich each second. Within the minute, it had produced a wealth of fruit for eating. Tails picked a few and tossed them to Sonic.

"I'd prefer chili-dogs," Sonic remarked, as he bit into one of the fruits.

"Yeah, too bad they don't grow on trees." Tails remarked. Lugging masses of food around would've been difficult; but between the green water and fruit seeds, they had potentially months worth of food, compressed into little more than a bottle and a few sacks.

Sonic raised an eyebrow; something about Tails had gotten his attention. "Say something again."

"Like what?" Tails looked at him.

"Is it just me..." Sonic said, eyeing the fox, "...or is your voice getting deeper?"

"Er..." Tails looked away, feeling a little embarrassed.

"Stand up, man." Sonic said, and watched as Tails complied. He stood also, walked up to the kit, looked him up and down. There was no doubt about it now; Tails stood at nearly Sonic's height!

"You're rutting!" Sonic said, incredulously.

"I... am?" Tails looked down at himself, scratching his head. "Must be something in the water."

"You'd think so, to make you grow like that," Sonic commented. _No wonder he was keeping up with me so easily today,_ he thought to himself.

Tails laughed a little. "No, I mean to make you trip out and say that!"

"Oh, har har." Sonic walked right up to the fox, a smug grin on his face. "I'm not kidding. You're taller than I remember. Man, if only Dulcy were here to see this!"

"Why does everyone talk about Dulcy in relation to me?" Tails asked, a little sardonically.

"She'd keep putting on the waterworks whenever you did something 'mature'." Sonic explained. Tails could sense the quotation marks around 'mature', and wondered if Sonic was insinuating that he was typically acting mature all the time, or never at all.

"Well, whatever." Tails shrugged, slipping under the covers of his bedroll. "We'll be juicing soon as the sun's up, right?"

"You got it, big guy." Sonic said.

"Night, Sonic."

"Seeya in the morning." Sonic chuckled a little to himself as he watched the fox curling up. He was in some ways annoyed, and in others very much flattered that Tails had taken on so many of his mannerisms. He remembered Rotor looking on in a conversation between the two of them, and affectionately dubbed the fox 'Lil Sonic'.

He wagered that with the evening's developments, by the time they returned, the fox wouldn't be so 'little' anymore.

Laying awake in his bedroll, Tails brooded on what Sonic had said. The hedgehog had noticed it. But he hadn't noticed yet something else Tails had been hiding. It'd been easy enough to hide it for the moment, in the bushiness of his namesakes, he could keep it unexposed fairly easy for the moment. But soon, he wouldn't be able to hide it anymore.

He reached around to his behind under the covers, and felt the bushiness of this extra appendage he'd harbored around his tails.

He was growing a third tail.

---

Sally had never seen Maga at night before. It was an unreal experience, seeing it lit up the way it was. In the daytime, the temple grounds had cut out an impressive figure against the sky.

But now, perched atop its lone mountain, like a spire reaching for the heavens... the place lashed out with a mystical luster, the likes of which she'd never thought she'd experience. Torches burned with dazzling blue flame. Glowing, luminescent insects swirled around, glimmering with their own magical aura.

Not a word had been said since the Freedom Stormer had landed. All that was heard for a while was the soft clacking of boots against stone pavement, except for Knuckles, whose hard leather boots seemed to make a little more noise as he moved.

Lupe had been staring at the echidna, watching his confident stride. Something was not quite right about him, but she couldn't quite put her finger on what. It was more about him than the pair of skulls slung around his neck that unsettled her; it was his whole persona, the empty, soulless look in his eyes. She could sense that he'd make quite a good liar; he'd displayed the ability to go from looking almost sincere to completely apathetic in the space of a second. Not to mention his reluctance to divulge anything at all relating to his history with Naugus, which stuck out as being suspicious. Maybe it indicated that Knuckles had simply had a run-in with the magician before. But it could also have meant that the two of them were conspiring together.

"Why are you staring at me?" he turned to her suddenly, as if reading her thoughts.

"Ah..." Lupe blushed, caught off guard. "I was just wondering; those skulls..." she stuttered, trying to sound nonchalant. "Whom did they belong to?"

Knuckles looked at her and smirked. Something about her tone of voice had amused him. "Not what you think. I'm not about to go around beheading anybody. They're of my parents. I wear them for luck, and as a tribute."

Rotor looked at him, aghast. "You wear their _heads_ as a _tribute_ to them!?"

Knuckles shrugged. "It's tradition, where I come from."

"So," Sally laughed, a little uneasily. "When you die, your kid's going to be wearing _your _skull around his neck?"

"I don't think so." Knuckles said, looking away. "I'm the last of my line. There won't be any more."

Lupe looked a little repentant. "So it's true... you are the last of the echidna..." When she caught Knuckles' surprised expression, she continued. "I read a little about your race and legends back in Knothole. But it never described what exactly happened to the rest of your race. Knuckles, could you tell me..."

"None of your business." Knuckles sneered, the very thought angering him.

"I just want to under--"

"Don't try. If you continue to probe me with these kinds of questions, we are done here. This conversation is now terminated." Knuckles said, adamantly, and looked ahead again. Malevolent thoughts screamed in his head like the baying of so many hounds, and he struggled to keep them under control.

The others all looked at him, a little confused at his rather absurd conduct, but none dared to say anything more.

They stopped at a tall temple door, two torches at its sides, burning brightly with the same blue flame Sally had noted from the air. Knuckles walked across a few of the stone tiles beneath them, stepping over the tall shoots of grass that broke through in places, and found one he was looking for. He knelt down, and lifted it out of the ground. Beneath the tile was a hidden compartment, with a wooden lever. Grunting a little, he pulled it back, and replaced the tile.

The door began grinding its way open, hitting its position in the ground with a loud thud.

Knuckles strode forward through the door, gesturing for the others to follow. "Come on, let's hurry this up."

They went on through, to a darkened tunnel. It was tight, and dimly lit. The blue flicker of the scantily placed torches here made their shadows dance along the walls as they moved.

"I'm getting a bad feeling about this," Rotor said. His fear was compounded when the tunnel suddenly darkened again, and with a grinding roar, the door they'd entered through sealed itself shut again.

Regardless, they continued, with Sally, Rotor and Lupe growing increasingly uneasy. Knuckles, however, simply continued his stride, seemingly oblivious, or at least ambivalent to their discomfort. The tunnel emptied out to a tall hall deep within the temple. Long chains swung and clinked together from the ceiling. The walls stretched high up, each with small alcoves carved out of them. Sally recognized them at once; there were coffins in all of them.

"This place..." Sally started. "We're in Maga's catacombs..."

"Observant of you." Knuckles nodded.

Sally grew alarmed as they passed the mid-point of the hall, in the center of which was a large stone tablet, chains and shackles at each of its corners. In the center of the tablet, was a large split. It looked like a chunk of the stone had been chopped out with a blade of some sort.

As they neared the end of the hall, they saw a steep set of stairs that led up to a raised platform. In the middle of it, under the light of a collection of literally millions of candles that lined the walls ahead, was a throne.

And in it, sat a familiar being.

"Naugus," Knuckles said formally.

To say he looked different to Sally's memory would be an understatement. The sorcerer, instead of the blue cape she'd seen him with before, now donned a long, red robe, the hood of it covering his head, where his telltale horn still protruded out the top. From under the shadow of the hood, his eyes glowed a blood red, narrow as slits.

Something was very, very wrong about all of this.

"Welcome, to all of you, to my spiritual abode." he announced as he rose from his throne, ceremoniously throwing his arms open. "Knuckles, Guardian of Angel Island. You have my thanks for delivering the princess for me. You have proven yourself to be a most reliable errand boy."

"Errand boy?" Knuckles crossed his arms, agitated. "Look, wizard. I've done my part of the deal. I request that you fulfil your end now. Cast the spell to bind the Master back to the island."

Naugus wheezed loudly as he laughed. "Yes, yes, whatever. You should realize by now, Guardian, that once I am done here, you will not much care what happens to your precious island."

The echidna scowled. "What do you mean, Naugus?"

"Simply, I have what I need now." Naugus announced. "You'd best run along now, little echidna."

"If Angel Island falls, the entire Mobian continent will be decimated!" Knuckles shouted, beginning to ascend the stairs. "Don't think that Maga will be exempt from its effects, either."

"Oh, I don't..." Naugus said, watching the guardian climb the steps. "Once the ritual is complete, Maga's preservation will not be a priority for me. And to be frank..." the wizard smirked. "The fact that both your world and half the Mobian continent is soon to be shattered both at once, is simply far too convenient for me to bother preventing it."

"You..." Knuckles raised a fist, and began sprinting straight at the sorcerer. "You _bastard!_"

"Hmph." Naugus said simply, and raised his claw arm. Immediately, a wall of crystal shot up from floor to cieling, between the two of them. Knuckles collided with it at full force, stumbling backwards, reeling from the impact. With a roar, he came at it again, and drove his fist into the barrier.

His enormously powerful blow simply glanced off the crystal's surface.

Lupe looked back, and saw, in the distance, the entrance to the hall had also been sealed with crystal. "Oh, no..."

They were trapped.

"Your time is up, little Guardian," Naugus said. "As it is for the rest of you." He threw his arms open, and howled at the top of his voice. "My brothers and sisters! ARISE!"

Like a chain reaction, the thousands of coffins in each of the alcoves exploded, one by one.

Out of each, dived out the rotting bodies of Naugus' ancestors. They hit the floor crudely, stumbled to their feet, and began congregating, as the four in the hall began to back up against the crystal barrier.

Sally looked at Knuckles, eyes narrowed. "You... you were going to sell us out! You deceived me!"

Knuckles said back to her, "Nothing personal. But you _know_ this is bigger than you or me! Do I look like I'm exactly happy with this outcome?"

"You still _knew_ this was a trap!" Sally said venomously. "I wouldn't have even minded so much that this was the only way it could go down. But you should have _told us--_"

"Guys, we have more immediate matters to attend to!" Rotor shouted, staring back down the hall.

The undead were approaching.

"This is not good at all." Lupe said. "Is there any way out of this?"

"Yes, but only one," Knuckles said, starting to step down the stairs. He stood in the middle of the hall, slowly cracking his namesakes together. "Bring 'em on."

And with that, Knuckles charged headlong into the fray, a fist in the air, letting out a frightening war cry. He swung his fists out as he made contact with the crowd of undead, the sharp barbs on his hands tearing rotten flesh from brittle bone, severing necks and torsos alike. A few around him fell, while others stumbled and swung at him, growling and gurgling angrily.

The smell of death was overwhelming.

Knuckles rolled under one swing, jumped over another lashing claw. He extended his arms as he went, kneecapping a dozen of the warriors as he went. They clawed their way along the ground, still intent on beating the echidna to a pulp, if not ripping him to shreds.

The others simply watched, mouths agape, as Knuckles was swallowed by the crowd. Then, he burst from them, sending bodies flying, leaping high into the air. He somersaulted over the lot of them, and dug his knuckles into the wall as he hit it. From there, he simply hung for a moment, watching the zombies herding around the base of the wall he hung from. Then, with another howl, he flung himself back in there, crushing many of them to a syrupy mess with a single, mighty blow. He lunged and rolled, dicing several of the enemies to ribbons on the way.

"What do we do, now?" Rotor asked. "He's diverting them from us, but he's not going to hold them back forever."

Sally started to get desperate. "I don't know... I really don't... search the boundaries for a way out. There must be some sort of escape route."

The three split up and rushed to the walls, as further up the hall, Knuckles swung and dodged, pummeling his enemies relentlessly. But now, he was getting tired. A blow took him in the arm and threw him off balance, but he pressed on, growing angrier and angrier as he went. He'd felled easily a hundred of them by now, but hundreds more still approached.

Finally, a brutal swing connected with his forehead, and as suddenly as it began, it was lights out for Knuckles the echidna.

With the Guardian out of their way, the horde turned to their next targets; Rotor, Sally and Lupe. They scrambled along the outer rims of the hall, searching desperately for some way, any way, to escape the room.

They found no purchase at all. It was hopeless. They were defenseless.

They met in the middle of the room, as t e horde began to swarm them. Sally threw out a few powerful kicks, while Lupe unleashed a potent uppercut, but they succeeded in only repelling them for a second. Rotor also struggled, but soon everything was black for all of them.

Now, in the catacombs of Maga, only the sound of shuffling flesh and deep, guttural moaning could be heard.

---

Sally thought she could hear the chirping of a bird. She opened her eyes slowly, regaining her vision, thinking for a second that she'd simply just awoken from an incredibly vivid nightmare.

As her vision gradually became more focused, it dawned on her that the nightmare was not quite over yet.

She was staring at the ceiling of the same hall she'd fallen in before. The crowds of withering undead were now lined up at the walls. Struggling a little, she realized she was shackled down. She couldn't move her arms or legs.

"Rotor! Lupe! Knuckles!" she screamed, desperately.

"We're here..." came a dull reply. It was Lupe's voice. Sally craned her neck, and saw, high above, the dingo, as well as Rotor and the echidna, were dangling from chains. Rotor was still out cold, but Knuckles simply looked down at her, a look of genuine remorse on his face.

"What's going on!?" Sally called out.

"I'm sorry, princess. I've failed..." Knuckles breathed, his voice strained and hoarse.

"What do you...?" Sally wondered aloud, and then took a moment to look directly up.

It suddenly made sense what was going on. She was shackled, prone to a stone tablet. And above her, hung a long, razor-sharp spike. A small series of gutters was around the floor of the tablet.

Her stomach churned. Her face contorted in horror.

"Ah, princess, you're awake." she saw Naugus standing at her feet, behind an altar. A large tome was placed upon it. "You should all be quite honored to witness this moment," he remarked. "This is the ritual of ascension. The moment that I, Naugus, become something more powerful, more potent, than anything this world has EVER seen. I'd love to take a little more time to explain to you all just what all this will mean to you all. Alas, the stars will not stay aligned forever, and time grows short. But do allow me to walk you through the basics.

"The elements required in this spell are the following:" Naugus said, allowing a moment for a haunting gasp of wind to pass throughout the hall. "The breath of Mobius."

Candles burned at each corner of Sally's stone slab. "Hand crafted, ceremonial candles."

Thin gutters were carved out of the floor around the slab, leading to the altar Naugus stood at. "Channels for the essence of the magic."

An enormous, six-pointed star was etched into the altar, with an image of an open eye in the center of it. "The symbol of Thamael."

A pair of glowing shards of rolled paper floated and spun slowly above Naugus' head. "The scrolls of Maga. And finally..."

A crooked grin crossed Naugus' face. "...the blood of a Royal."

Naugus cackled to himself, wickedly. "When these elements are combined at the alignment of the Thamaelic constellations, the altar of Maga becomes the focal point of an immense release of power. With the utterance of the sacred passages as the elements combine, the sorcerer who stands at this focal point has these immense, powerful essences released and channeled directly to his body. And thus, he shall become blessed. Not a god per se, but he shall be certainly climbing more than a few rungs!"

He stood, throwing his robe back, exposing his bared chest.

Naugus had carved a long, vertical line down it, separating skin from the collar bone to a little higher than the navel.

"And so, it begins! Denvishi, Kalmarthi, Thamaeli..." Naugus began.

The candles at Sally's sides suddenly turned from subtle flickers to tall jets of flame. Her eyes widened, and she struggled, but the bonds of the shackles were far too strong.

"This is insanity! Naugus, you have to stop!" Knuckles shouted, but suspended from the chains as he was, he could do little more than just that; shout. Naugus paid him no heed.

"Velarmara Vadrigara! Essence of Thamael, accept this offering, and bless me with your touch, let my veins course with your power! Allow me to speak your wicked words, so you may see through mine eyes! Allow me a fraction of your essence, a drop of your blood, so that I may rule Mobius with the strength of thousands!! Curse the weak! Allow me to walk this plane with the stride of omnipotence! Bless me!!!"

_Ker-chunk._

"No!" Knuckles and Lupe screamed in unison.

Sally only realized it after it happened. With a sickening _crack_, the spike had descended and pierced right through her body, spiking her ribcage, crushing a lung, brushing alongside her heart. She could do nothing more than simply look at the shaft, sticking crudely out of her stomach. It was so unreal...

Then she cried out in pain, like she'd never cried before. The agony was unbelievable, and it engulfed every synapse of her nerves. She tried to arch her back reflexively, but she was now pinned there. "Oh, gods... uhh..."

She could feel it, now. The comforting warmth of her life that was spreading across her back and sides, now draining down the sides of the stone slab. It trickled through the carved-out canals, leading to the altar.

"_Yeeeesssssss..._" she could hear Naugus hissing.

She started shivering, convulsing. Her body began to grow cold, joints stiffening, the strength literally pouring out of her muscles. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing passed her lips but pained coughing and spots of blood. Her vision began to darken.

And then, she felt nothing. As she slipped happily out of consciousness, she thought about everything that had happened.

Thought about her friends, that she cared for so deeply. The family that had guided her through all the chaos of her life.

Thought about that blue hedgehog that had gotten her through thick and thin, and won her heart with his charming personality and strong bravado.

Thought about how she loved him so. And though it frustrated her that the hedgehog would never say it back to her, she knew he loved her back, so it was alright.

Thought about her father, the king. Growing up in Mobotropolis. The old palace, walking into Chuck's lab to say hi and play around.

Thought about the swishing of trees, the soft caress of the wind, the waving of the grass. The grace with which her life had come and gone, to arrive at this incredibke crescendo.

Then, above the screaming silence, she heard a voice she thought she'd never hear again. It was a smooth, comforting voice. It soothed her right down to the deepest reaches of her soul.

"Welcome back, Sally."

In the fast vanishing physical world, Princess Sally Acorn managed one last smile. "Hello, Mother..."

And then, it was over.

---

"NAUGUS!" Knuckles screamed, still hanging from the chains. "You have wronged me for the last time. So long as I live, I will not stop until you are dead! You hear me!?"

Naugus didn't hear.

Naugus was standing at the altar still, his eyes closed. The stream of blood that had passed from Sally's body glowed vibrant crimson, and, defying gravity, arced from the tracks in the floor and up into his open chest. His eyes snapped open. A rumble shook the entire temple. And then, crackling and spurting, he began to grow taller, stronger, the pained groans of thousands passing his lips. His eyes glowed brighter and more malevolently than ever. Giant, veiny wings burst from his back, spread out and fluttered briefly.

"Oh, yes... YES!" he screamed with delight, his voice now dropping a few octaves lower than it had been. What was once an elderly wheeze was now a cacophonous boom.

"So... this is what it feels like, to have the blood of a god flowing through your veins... MY CUP RUNNETH OVER!!!"

Lashing out with his now exceedingly muscular claw arm, he shot three arcs of lightning at the chains that snapped the steel chains holding the three captives like rotten cord wire. They fell to the ground with a thud, and struggled to their feet.

"GO," Naugus said dismissively. "RUN ALONG NOW, LITTLE ONES. YOUR TIME IS SOON TO BE UP ANYWAY. I HAVE MORE IMPORTANT MATTERS TO ATTEND TO!"

Knuckles roared, and began running full-tilt at the now demi-god, but Lupe put a hand to his chest, holding him back. "It's no use, Knuckles! We have to get out of here!" Grudgingly, Knuckles contained himself.

Rotor was still stumbling to his feet, completely shocked at the carnage that lay before his eyes.

The temple was beginning to crumble. Shards of rock slid out of place and crashed against the floor's tiles. Naugus simply turned, and faced his arms upward. A lance of lightning shot forth, blasting a hole in the ceiling, and with a flap of his wings, he took off and up into the sky, out of sight.

Lupe walked over to Sally's impaled body on the stone.

The princess' eyes were closed, her face serene. And though a thick trail of blood ran from her lips, they had still managed to contort into a smile. Lupe couldn't help but wonder what kind of thoughts had been going through her head, in that final moment.

"Goodbye, Sally..." the wolf whispered, lightly kissing her forehead. "And thank you. For everything. You shall not go unavenged."

"Sally... I can't believe it... she's really gone..." Rotor murmured, still in shock.

Lupe turned, and strode past Rotor, amidst the rubble that was rapidly piling up in the hall. The crystal barriers had subsided, the doorway that had closed behind them earlier now lay open. The morning sun shone just beyond.

"Let us go... there is nothing more that we can do here." Lupe said, as she walked. Knuckles and Rotor silently fell in behind her, and they began to quicken their pace from a stride to a run as the foundations of the structure began to give out.

Minutes later, the Freedom Stormer and its three remaining occupants cut a trail across the morning sky as Maga collapsed unto itself, the once incredible ancient monument, along with all its secrets and history, now reduced forever to nothing but dust and rubble.

---

The hedgehog and fox duo had set off again with the dawn, heading sharply north. They'd witnessed the landscapes turning from the lush forestry of the midlands, to the rolling plains of the Great Unknown. Now, Mobius North lay ahead of them. It was an snowy, mountainous terrain, full of steep crags, powdery forests and crystalline lakes. Further ahead north, lay the frozen peak of Mobius, where no one from the way of Knothole had even considered venturing to before. It was said that at the very top of the continent, lay entire landscapes carved out of nothing but solid ice, shaped by the hands of nature over the space of billions of years.

Sonic and Tails weren't going that far North, though. They were headed steadily among the mountain ranges of Mobius North, following the path that Sonic had plotted in the map Lazar had provided for them. He was grateful that the wizard had allowed them to some of his wardrobe as well; the hedgehog had never guessed he'd be venturing this far out. But in the grand scheme of things, it looked like they'd actually be taking _less_ time than he'd thought, despite the distance. Provided that this Brotherhood of Thamael could provide some solid answers as to Naugus' whereabouts.

The problem was, even though they had clearly marked _where_ they were to be looking, they had no idea _what _to look for. Lazar had told them that the Brotherhood's sanctuary was hidden; and thus, they'd have to look around quite a bit if they wished to gain access.

In the snowy terrain, they saw something up ahead.

"Is that a house?" Sonic pointed out as he ran.

Tails squinted. "Yeah, looks like it. A log cabin. You think we should drop in?"

"Well..." Sonic pondered aloud, "It seems strange that they'd just drop a place like that in the middle of nowhere. Maybe it's some kind of guardhouse for the Sanctuary."

They tried looking through the windows of the snow-covered cabin, but they were so frosted up that making out any of the contents of the establishment was all but impossible. An orange glow was visible, however.

Sonic approached the door, took hold of the heavy metallic door knocker, and rapped it a few times.

They waited.

"Should we see if there's anyone else around here?" Tails suggested, when they'd gotten no reaction.

"Might have to--" Sonic started, when the door he was leaning on swung inward, sending him nearly toppling inside. He rose to his feet again, and found himself staring at the face of a grey mouse. From beneath his dark robe, a pair of bright green eyes stared at the hedgehog with some annoyance.

"Uh, hey..." Sonic began. "Listen, we don't mean to bother you, but we're..."

"Not from around here, are you?" the mouse finished Sonic's sentence for him. Sonic nodded. "You after directions or something?"

"In a manner of speaking," Sonic said, clasping his hands behind his back. "We're already where we need to be, but we can't find a way in. I'm supposed to be meeting up with a bunch called the Brotherhood of Thamael..."

"Never heard of them." the mouse said, offhandedly. "You after anything I might actually be able to help you with?"

With nothing else to offer, Sonic was about to say his apologies for the disturbance and goodbye, but then inside the cabin, he spotted a flag hung up above the fireplace. A six-pointed star was emblazoned upon it, image of an eye in the center. Checking the book Lazar had given him, he noted the cover of the book bore the same symbol on its hard cover.

With a smirk, Sonic looked at the mouse again, eyes narrowed. "You suuure you haven't heard of them?"

When the keeper of the hut noted the symbol on the book, he mirrored Sonic's curious expression. "Hold on a moment." he said, with a flick of his hand. He walked over to a cupboard, and opened it up, revealing a hologram projector within it. He switched it on, and in it appeared the face of one whom appeared to be a black goat.

"My Lord, we have a hedgehog and a two-tailed fox here, requesting entry to the Sanctuary. The hedgehog has one of our manuals."

The goat's eyes widened. "Two tails, you say?"

"Yes, Lord."

"Bring them to me without delay! Thank you, Marcus."

"As you wish." Switching the hologram off, the mouse turned to Sonic. "The Lord wishes to see you both at once. Please, step this way. Close the door behind you."

Sonic and Tails looked at each other, shrugged, and went inside.

The robed mouse led them down a flight of stairs to the cabin's dug-out cellar. Walking over to one of the walls there, he waved a hand over it slowly, and with a nod of his head, a square of the wall slowly shifted inwards, and slid out of the way.

A narrow, tunnel, lit sparingly with candles, led to a heavy wooden door sporting the now familiar symbol, painted in red. There was something ominous about it, and Sonic, despite the reassurance Lazar had given him, still felt apprehensive about leading the young fox into this sort of place. Already, there seemed to be some sort of plan for the kit. Though what it was, still eluded him. Was it was simply that of some higher-ups in this particular little enclave or something larger than he could comprehend?

The gears turned in his head. He had only met Lazar the ancient wizard once before, and he'd sported a supposedly 'evil' history. Now, he was trusting both Tails' and his own skin to his word. Rationally, he had his doubts about all this, and briefly, he considered taking Tails and just getting back to Knothole as soon as possible, lest something terrible happen to either him or Tails.

But there had been something in the old warlock's eyes that told him that this was important, possibly even more important than his ultimate objective for this expedition, freeing the king from the Void.

That last look he'd taken behind him as they'd left his chambers, and watched him dissolve in his chair, the contented, victorious smile on his face. The look of a man whose purpose had been fulfilled.

What puzzled him, and even saddened him a little, was that he had not been told of what that purpose was. His thoughts stirred. There was some greater presence on Mobius, something intangible, that he'd never caught a hint of previously. It was... tantalizing. It unnerved him, but made him curious all the same. Curious enough to trust these folks, at least for the time being.

They'd gone through the door, and into a hall that creepily reminded him of the old palace, albeit with a very different feel. The floors were wooden boards, polished enough to look like a mirror. The walls were lined with the now regular symbol, etched upon enormous flags. Gas lamps burned in every corner. Just like the palace in Mobotropolis had been designed, this place suggested an establishment that had remained here for many, many centuries, and even as technology and architecture had progressed, this place had remained stubbornly true to its original specifications. It was timeless in the true sense of the word. A long roll of rug led down the great hall. The patterns were intricate, but riddled with tiny imperfections; a sign that they'd been stitched by hand.

Other mobians passed by the three as they continued, all wearing those black robes that Marcus donned. Sonic counted at least fifty in the hall, maybe a few more or less. Many of them eyed Sonic and (especially) Tails curiously, some giving them a formal nod as they passed, but not a word was uttered by any of them.

They were led into a side door, and down a spiral stairwell, and down another, narrower hall. At the end, they reached an unmarked door. Marcus knocked on it loudly four times, stepped back from the door and waited. He turned to Sonic.

"I'll ask that while you are in the Sanctuary, you are to remain composed. This is our abode, and so long as we allow you passage in here, you are obligated to repay us with your respect and sensibility."

"Okay..." Sonic nodded. It was a strange comment to him. He'd always passed that off as simple common manners, but the way the mouse had relayed it, though it made sense, seemed rather unusual.

The door opened, behind it the face of the goat he'd seen on the hologram in the cabin.

"Lord," the mouse said, standing up straight. "As per your request, I have brought you the hedgehog and fox."

"Thankyou, Marcus." the goat said with a smile. "You are done. Go back to the cabin, and remain as vigilant as you can. As usual, you have conducted yourself well."

"I try my best, Lord." Marcus nodded, as he bowed respectfully.

"Rise to your feet." the goat said, gently taking the mouse by the shoulder. "Trying your best is all I ask. You have my gratitude." Marcus spoke not another word, but rose quickly, nodded once more, and turned to leave. The goat spoke with a stern, but strangely inviting tone. Sonic was already beginning to form an impression.

Sonic and Tails followed the goat nervously inside. The walls here were lined with red curtains, the floor a set of black tiles. A large oak desk sat in the middle, a bookcase behind it. A few of its shelves bore not books but what Sonic recognized as glass flasks, apparatuses, portable stove plates, mixing bowls. All equipment used for alchemy.

The black goat was an imposing sight. Though he only stood at around Ari's height, he was even more rigidly built, and his face was thinner and more chiselled. Where the other members of this brotherhood had been seen wearing robes, this one was clad in a heavy set of chainmail, a large red cape wrapped around it. He still had a hood on like the others, however, and it was only now that he chose to remove it. A long, white beard hung from his chin, though he didn't seem at all old. It was only now that the goat stood near one of the room's lamps that it was revealed that his face was covered in scars and pockmarks.

"Been in a few fights, huh?" Sonic noted.

"Fights? No, not many." the goat laughed. "Accidents while practicing my alchemy, however, is something I have seen plenty of! I'm sure you're wondering who I am. My full title is Lord Christof, of the Brotherhood of Thamael." He extended a hand, and Sonic took it gingerly. A little surprisingly, he went up to Tails, a little kit, and extended his hand for him as well.

"I'm Sonic, and this is Miles." Sonic said, pointing at the kit. "But we just call him Tails back at home."

Christof smirked. "I can see your reasoning behind that. Now, please, come, take a seat."

They were led over to the desk, where Christof sat behind it, Sonic and Tails pulling up two of the rather comfortable leather seats on the other side of it.

"And so..." Christof, looked at them. "I must admit I am very much intrigued that you should show your faces here. It seems we have a few things to discuss. So, if you would allow, I will address you first; What is it that leads you both here?"

"It's a pretty long story." Sonic said, not really knowing where to begin. Instead of searching for a way to summarize their lengthy list of events that had led up to this, he decided to cut to the chase. "Basically, we're looking for a guy called Naugus. We were told that if there was anyone who knew where he was, it would be you guys."

Christof's eyes narrowed. "Who told you to come to _us,_ regarding _him?_"

"Lazar," Sonic said, producing the book that the wizard had given him.

"This..." the goat said, taking the book. "It _is _his! What, may I ask, were you doing dealing with the likes of him!? And looking for none other than Naugus, no less!? Both of them were a major problem while I was still a brother here. And both were discharged, most dishonorably for their cruel intentions! They took no heed of our ideals!"

"Wait, wait..." Sonic said, holding a hand up. "You said Lazar was _evil?_ And he was in league with Naugus?" He had remembered the way the wizard had reacted when Sonic had mentioned Naugus' name. Now that he thought about it, that seemed to make sense. They'd left this place as friends, and gone their very different ways afterwards.

"Understand this, Sonic..." Christof said, very carefully. "I suspect neither of you know the philosophies of Thamaellic life. If I am to summarize, this philosophy emphasizes, primarily, the improvement of one's self through achievement and discipline. It is not an inherently evil way of life. Their motivation was nothing but simple power and conquest, and for that they were cast out. And why, may I ask, did you want to have anything to do with him?"

"Well, we're from down south," Sonic responded. "Heard of the Knothole Freedom Fighters?"

"Yes, I have... vaguely." Christof nodded slowly.

"Well, the royal princess, Sally, is with us. Her dad, the King, was trapped in the Void. And so far as we know, the only way we can get him out of there is by getting Naugus to open it."

"I see." Christof nodded again, and grimaced slightly. "Forgive me... it is rather difficult to harbor why you would be wanting to free _him._ From your point of view, I'm sure it makes perfect sense, but..."

The goat frowned, and looked around the room for invisible eyes, suddenly paranoid. "...the king of Mobotropolis is not exactly a well liked character here."

Sonic raised an eyebrow, confused.

"You appear quite ignorant of your nation's history, hedgehog..." Christof said darkly. "Further north from here, is the city of Trema. It is now largely a wasteland. A few small communities have managed to rebuild on the outskirts, such as this sanctuary, but the people of Mobotropolis... _your _people, have all but decimated it. We were only able to recover because it was determined that not one survived."

"I..." Sonic's eyes went wide. "I was never told any of this! What I was told was that it was a war against a few rebel enclaves in the Great Unknown, and the Mobotropolis outskirts. They must've hid it from all of us..."

"It's the truth." Christof said. "Your monarchy, like it or not, is responsible for genocide. The War Minister of that time was uncompromising in every way. No prisoners were taken. We were all laid to complete waste. I'm sure it's one of your capital's more filthy secrets."

"The War Minister... Robotnik!" Sonic looked at his feet, feeling rather ashamed. "We should've all known that he would get his grubby hands into the political side of things. Not to mention that we'd always been brought up being told that there was _nothing_ this far north. So the whole war effort was censored?"

"Our consolation for the entire catastrophe was that now at Robotnik's hands, Mobotropolis has also fallen. We're content to leave it at that, but we still have people who, understandably, bear the scars of those past events and the hatred that goes with it.

"Regardless, we are running from the topic at hand." Christof said briskly, his voice going up a notch. "If opening the Void is your reasons for finding Naugus, then I personally would not recommend making the effort."

"Why not? We've dealt with him before, and he seemed friendly enough..." Sonic shrugged.

Christof leaned over the desk a little. "Did he help you out of sheer courtesy, or did he have something to gain out of it?"

Sonic looked down. "He... was in the Void as well. We... I helped him get out."

The Lord leaned back in his chair, stroking his beard slowly. "This is quite bad..."

"That we let him out?

"That, and Naugus has finally mustered the power to control the gates to the Void himself! You must know that it takes one of immense sheer mental capacity to complete a spell such as opening the way to another dimension. To that end, nobody else from the brotherhood in centuries, including myself, has ever been capable of such a feat. However, if you are that committed to freeing your precious king, I have a better suggestion than dealing with Naugus. He would probably kill you, now that the odds are in his favour."

"And what's that?" Tails asked. Sonic looked at him, surprised that the fox had stepped in here. Tails seemed to have been following the entire conversation. Upon further thought, the hedgehog wondered why that had struck him as being strange at all; the kid had always been pretty cluey.

"That brings me to what I had wanted to ask of you two," Christof said, eyeing Tails. "Miles, have you ever known anyone else in your life with two tails?"

Tails' ears folded back a little. "Nope."

"You, my boy... are a Kitsune fox, one of an ancient, mythical race of foxes with an incredible natural affinity for magic. Never obvious at very young ages, but as the fox grows, it of course becomes more apparent. The way to tell you from your regular fox brethren is as you grow, you will gain more and more tails. Legend has it some have grown up to six tails, an indication of their inherent powers. But one thing I've never heard of..."

Christof looked the fox from top to bottom. "...is of a kitsune who bears two tails when they have not even rutted yet! Tell me, how long have you had that second tail?"

Miles shrugged. "Long as I can remember." Rather embarrassingly, his voice popped briefly between his normal kiddish voice and a somewhat deeper one.

"You're rutting now..." Christof observed. "This is quite incredible! I have never seen nor spoken to a kitsune in person before. Your kind are not well known, and have not been observed for many, many years. You were all long considered extinct. But... if the texts are correct, you are not only a kitsune fox, but your growth of a second tail so early in the part suggests that you are indeed a magnificent example of one!

"Sonic," the goat turned to him, "My suggestion is that you do not seek out Naugus to open your Void portal. You simply open one yourself!"

"You said nobody from here has ever been able to open one since Naugus."

"No one has..." Christof smiled. "But I firmly believe that you, Miles, once you are mature and have learned of the skills required, your power will be equal to that of Naugus, if not surpassing it."

He leaned back, again, resting his gloved hands on his lap. "I would like to make a proposition to you, young Miles. Stay here with the Brotherhood. Learn our practices, and learn our skills. Then, you will be able to use that power for whatever you wish."

"You want him to become a Thamaeilist?" Sonic frowned. "I'm not too keen on the idea of anyone I know dropping to their knees for some so-called higher entity."

"Good," Christof said. "Because neither are we. Thamael is not some ghost you say your prayers to every night. He is a symbol, a metaphor, that stands for absolute mastery of one's self, and of the world in which they live. You see the six-pointed star of Thamael behind me?" He pointed at the massive tapestry that hung behind him. "Each of the points represents an aspect to fulfill on the road to enlightenment.

"The top point," he began, "represents power; the improvement of one self's both physical and mental power and abilities.

"The top right point represents valiance; the bravery and boldness to seek out one's desires by any means.

"The bottom right point is defiance; the ability to remain true to one's aspirations in the face of difficulty, without compromise.

"The bottom point is that of wisdom; the desire to learn, and understand both one's self and the world around them.

"The bottom left point point shows indulgence; one's self-fulfillment through satisfying their needs and desires, without fear of guilt or moral implications.

"The top left point represents vitality; awareness of one's self and of the world. Grounding on reality through undefiled awareness of their existence, instead of chasing spiritual or mental pipe dreams.

"And finally, the eye in the middle represents enlightenment, through the upholding of all six points.

"But that aside..." Christof shrugged, and looked at Tails. "In any case, subscribing to our more in-depth philosophies, in this case, is entirely your own choice."

"Ah..." Tails looked at Sonic with pleading eyes, desperate for some advice.

Christof caught his eye movements, raised from his desk, and knelt down in front of the kit. He rested both his large hands upon the fox's shoulders, and explained, "This choice, Miles, is yours to make, not his. You are capable of making decisions for yourself. You are no fool, I have seen it in your eyes throughout this exchange. Now is your time to decide."

Tails looked at Sonic again, but only got an indifferent look from the hedgehog; a look that seemed totally alien to him.

"It's your call, big guy." Sonic shrugged. Inside, his heart was pounding; would Tails actually leave Knothole for the sake of this? Abandon his friends, his family, for the sake of empowering himself?

The kitsune took a moment to close his eyes, and looked to Christof. "I'll do it..."

Christof smiled broadly.

Sonic suddenly felt dizzy and lightheaded, his heart seizing for a moment.

"...under one condition." Tails added, with a smile.

Christof raised his chin slightly, eyeing him curiously. "And what is that condition?"

"That Sonic's allowed to stay here and check in on me."

"Done." Christof nodded.

Sonic beamed, proud of the kid. "Past cool." he winked.

"Well, that settles it." Christof said finally, as he headed for the door, Sonic and Tails following in his stride. They left the room in a hurry.

Christof looked down at Tails, trotting along next to him. "I'll see to it that you have a quarters and study arranged immediately, and a bed reserved for Sonic at all times, should he ever pay a visit here. Neither of you have betrayed my trust by misconducting yourselves in these halls, and for that I thank you."

---

Within the day, it was arranged. Tails' dorm room was surprisingly spacious, replete with a generously sized double bed, an elaborate oak desk, a complete supply of texts to read, as well as his own robe. A magnificent crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling. It was all very overwhelming to the young kit. After showing them around, Christof told them both to relax and explore the Sanctuary, to rest well, and find him when Tails was ready to begin his tutoring. Then he left, and Sonic and Tails were alone in the dorm room.

"I think you did the right thing, Tails. I'm proud of ya." Sonic said, giving him the thumbs up.

Tails sat down nervously on the silky green sheets of his bed, noting the feel of it. "I'll miss all of you guys... I wish I could go tell Aunt Sally how this all happened."

Sonic sat down next to him, and put an arm around his shoulder. "I'll explain everything to her, bro. Don't worry about it. I know she'll understand. Who knows, maybe they'll let me bring visitors when I come rolling back around! Or let you stop past Knothole from time to time."

"Yeah..." Tails smiled wanly, ears still folded back a little.

"Hey..." Sonic caught on. "I ain't leaving right away."

Tails looked at him. "You should, Sonic. I don't want the others worrying about us any longer than they have to. Go tell them what's going on."

"You sure?"

"Yeah." Tails nodded adamantly.

"So..." Sonic started, getting to his feet and staring at the kit. "I guess this is goodbye then, for the mome."

"Guess so..." Tails frowned, raising to stare at Sonic face to face.

Sonic suddenly felt his bottom lip quivering slightly, and bit down on it hard. "You'll take care of yourself while I'm gone, won't ya?"

"Only if you do."

Sonic held out a closed fist. "Past cool."

"Way past." Tails smiled, and punched Sonic's fist hard with his own, the gesture than going into a tight clasping between hands. They stood silent for a moment, until Sonic just let go and hugged Tails as hard as he could, the two locking into a tight embrace.

Sonic could've stayed and drawn it out, but neither of the two had ever liked goodbyes. So, without another word, he turned his back, and left the dorm, door closing behind him.

Tails laid back upon the alien sheets and stared at the ceiling, the fur on his cheeks matted with tears.

He'd miss them all. But he knew this was an opportunity to grand to miss. The more he thought about it, the more he understood the importance of the form he was to take.

He dragged himself off the bed slowly, grabbed an armload of books from the desk, and shoved them into his backpack.

He picked up the Codex that Lazar had entrusted him with, and looked at it for a second. He watched the light reflecting through it for a moment, tossed it into a small leather pouch that had been left on his desk. He decided that if Lazar had been charged with guarding an item that was now Tails' responsibility, it'd be wise of him to make sure the crystal never left his person.

He slung the pouch over one shoulder by its straps, slung his back pack over the other and headed for the door to find Christof.

---

In the cold darkness of the crucible of Robotropolis, a few small lights and dials glimmered.

A SWATbot stood by, speaking the information that was being relayed into its head. "ADVISORY SYSTEM ONLINE. VOICE ONLINE. EMERGENCY POWER RESTORED. REPAIR BOTS HAVE BEEN DISPATCHED TO REPAIR ALL DAMAGED REACTOR UNITS."

Robotnik stood before a tall, glass tube. The roboticizer. His dark eyes gleamed with sorrow. In the middle of the roboticization platform, he had laid Snively's body down, curled up in a ball.

He had never set any section aside for funerals. This seemed to be the most appropriate way to say goodbye.

"ROBOTICIZER IS POWERED UP AND READY FOR OPERATION. INNER CITY SECURITY SENSORS ONLINE. THERMOOPTIC SENSORS ONLINE. SWATBOT FACTORIES ARE OPERATIONAL AND WORKING AT 98 EFFECIENCY."

"Colin Kintobor... my prodigal nephew..." Robotnik spoke aloud. "After all these years, it would seem my lack of faith in you was unfounded. Forgive me..."

He took one last look at the hard copy page he held in his hand. Displayed upon it was a single set of coordinates, that he had discovered as he'd been peeling through the remnants of Lilith's databanks. "An amazing parting gift you have left me, nephew."

Above the two sets of numbers, was a single title: KNOTHOLE.

Beneath the gloved hand he held the page in, his hand was burning with pain. His fingers ached through to the bone as he flexed them. For beneath that glove, they were not wholly flesh, but slowly being overtaken with that accursed crystal that he'd been surrounded with in the Void. Like frostbite, it bit into his flesh, its sharp tendrils snaking around his veins. But his knowledge of a cure for it dulled the pain.

The lord of the robots hung his head. "Colin... Snively. I have been cruel to my own blood. I never said it in so many words... but your dream. _Our _dream. Of returning home at last...! The dream has been dead for so long. I knew, as soon as we'd raised our heads from the grass we'd landed upon, that we'd never return to Earth. But I wanted to keep it alive for you. To see the hope in your eyes. That blind, vain hope that would keep you faithful to my cause."

His eyes glazed over the features of the corpse, the dark wounds where needles and cables had been crudely shoved into his body. "But it was that faith I instilled in you, that has taken you from me."

He walked over to the roboticizer control panel, and punched in a few commands. The light in the roboticizer chamber switched from a green hue to a more orange one, as the settings took effect.

And then, Robotnik strode onto the platform himself. Knelt next to the prone body of his former subordinate.

He removed the glove from his hand, and touched his rotted, crystalline fingers over his nephew's face. "I promise you this... with the strength in my arm. With every inch of my tainted spirit..."

He rose to his feet, and stared into the pulsing light above him, his palms turned up. The glass containment shield slowly lowered around him and Snively's prone corpse, locking into place with a loud clunk.

"...that I will make them all suffer!" he shouted. "That I will see this world wither and twist for what it has done! And then, I will know it is over, when nothing is left. Nothing but my blackened soul to rule it all. The dead heart... of a dead world."

The light above him began to grow brighter, until it was almost blinding. But Robotnik's eyes were wide open, taking it all in. The pain of roboticization burned like an ethereal fire, but he welcomed it with open arms. The sensation of feeling every stretch of muscle transforming to cold steel plating. The shedding of his human skin, that in his twisted mind, was no cause for alarm or dread, but rather a sign of greater things.

"In technology I trust..."

The light burned brighter still.

"I, Robotnik. The machine. The second coming."

---

For the past few days, Knothole had been silent. Its citizens nodded at each other with wan smiles as they went throughout their tasks, but they all knew what had happened. What was happening. They all knew that things were unraveling, fast.

Knuckles had never felt more out of place before. He was surrounded by faces he didn't know, all of them eyeing him with the same look. They didn't say it. But he knew they blamed him for Sally's death. And somewhere deep inside, he couldn't help but feel responsible himself, even though he had been betrayed. Helping these folks out here seemed to be the only way he could think to atone for his mistake. Besides that, with no hope of keeping his island afloat now, he had little reason to be anywhere else.

He was at one end of a wardrobe from Bunnie's hut, with Bunnie herself at the other. They were carrying it slowly to one of the hovercraft they'd gotten Griff from Lower Mobius to organize. The plan was to take everything they could and get as far away from Angel Island's predicted point of impact as possible.

He tried to shrug Bunnie's glare off. But it stuck.

"Look..." he told her, as they continued walking. "It wasn't my fault. I tried to save her. I've told you all the truth."

"Ahuh..." Bunnie grimaced, stepping over a log on the ground. "I dun doubt that. Lupe told us all the same story. Ain't your fault y'all got tricked. But _you was_ still trickin' _us_. Didja think Naugus was gonna want her for casual conversation?" She looked away solemnly. "What I'm worried about is when ol' Sonic n' Tails come buzzin' back to all this. They loved that girl to bits! How are we gonna break it to them?"

Knuckles had heard plenty about Sonic since they'd arrived back in Knothole, and heard plenty about the sort of chemistry that had been going on between him and the princess.

He sighed, carefully stepping over the same log Bunnie had crossed a second ago. "I made a mistake. But if things had gone to plan, even having to allow her to die would've been a necessity, if it meant the island wouldn't fall. It was a gamble, and it didn't pay off. I'm sorry. But you... _all _of you..." he looked around at the others, moving equipment and belongings around as he and Bunnie were. "You all know it'd have been necessary, to save all of our homes. I'm not completely heartless. I'm trying my best to atone for all of this. Just cut me some slack."

A whir nearby caught Bunnie's attention, and when she recognized the source, she felt a black wave shudder through her heart.

"Guess who's back!" Sonic grinned, as he sped up to them and stopped abruptly, a trail of fallen leaves fluttering slowly to the ground behind him. "Man, have I got some news for you guys..."

"Welcome back, Sonic..." Bunnie started, her eyes beginning to shine.

It was only when Sonic saw the look on Bunnie face that he took the time to properly survey the scene, and turned to her, utterly confused. "Bunnie? What's going on? Where's Sal? And who's this guy?"

Bunnie choked back a sob, and scowled at Knuckles, dropping her end of the wardrobe. "You wanna atone for all this? Here's your chance."

Knuckles slowly lowered his end of the wardrobe to the leafy ground, and looked at the hedgehog, his eyes wavering – just a little. "You're Sonic?"

"Yeah..." Sonic responded unevenly. It was when he saw Bunnie trudging back to her hut, cupping a hand over her eyes, that the feeling hit him. Dread. Sheer, total dread.

"Sonic..." Knuckles said flatly, his voice a little quieter than usual. "We have to talk."


	8. A World Fallen

**EPISODE 7 – A WORLD FALLEN**

"_Long is the way  
And hard, that out of Hell leads up to Light."_

John Milton

Sonic had never felt so speechless before.

He had watched Knuckles sitting cross legged in the center of his now empty hut, watching the echidna's mouth move, taking in the words that he spoke for the past few minutes. He'd watched a crimson ray of dying sunlight creep slowly across his face. All the time, Sonic kept pacing, as Knuckles had explained his origins, the impending fall of the island, Naugus' betrayal... and Sally's fate.

Sonic had said nothing the whole time. For every question he thought to ask, Knuckles had intercepted it. And all the other thoughts... they just sprung from one corner of his mind to the other, all crisscrossing, bewildering the hedgehog. He felt dizzy. Everything felt so unreal. He felt so aware of the space he was in. The dark oak wood walls, the dusty rug on the floor, the features of the echidna that sat in the middle of it. That little beam of sunlight passing over Knuckles' face and now creeping its way along the wall behind him.

Sally was gone.

He had to tell Tails! He had to help with the evacuation! He had to find Naugus! Robotnik! Rescue the king! He couldn't wait anymore. Time was a vice around his head, and it closed in, squeezing him. The pressure in his head made it throb. Images and thoughts of the macabre and unpleasant flickered before his mind's eye in a frightening staccato.

Knuckles had carefully watched the hedgehog pacing around the room, going faster and faster the more he talked. And when he finished talking, Sonic was in the corner, arms folded, tapping his foot impatiently.

"You done?" he said, quickly.

Knuckles nodded, and slowly got to his feet.

"Good." Sonic nodded. "I'm gonna juice. Things to do."

Sonic made a beeline for the door, but Knuckles was already there, and he caught the hedgehog by the shoulders.

"Out of my way, Knucklehead." Sonic growled.

"It wouldn't be wise of you to go anywhere." Knuckles said matter-of-factly, shaking his head. "I don't trust that you won't do anything stupid to us or yourself. You're in shock."

"Shock, my ass!" Sonic threw Knuckles' hands off his shoulders, breathing growing faster as he spoke. "I can't let this affect me anyway. I've still got things I have to do. They can't wait, man! Naugus is out there, we still have plenty to get out of here before we can leave, we--"

"Listen to yourself!" Knuckles cut him off. "You're raving like a lunatic. We can get things sorted for the moment. I know this is a lot for you to stomach, but you need to calm down."

"Calm down?" Sonic glared at him. "Why should I calm down!? Why haven't I ground you to the floor yet!? Sally's dead. For the love of Mobius, she's freaking _dead._ Because of you!"

Knuckles just closed his eyes, and sighed. Not out of guilt or sorrow, but more of grating impatience.

"No..." Sonic looked away. "Not just because of you. Because of me... I wasn't there..." He turned his gaze to Knuckles again, with a disarmed look. "Please, just let me out of here..."

Sonic looked down, licked his lips, and finished his breath in little but a whisper: "…before I hurt you."

_I'd like to see you try,_ Knuckles thought. Regardless, he shook his head, dreadlocks swaying, and stepped aside the door. Sonic immediately bolted through it, jumped the fence in a smooth leap, and took off into the thick forest.

Knuckles stepped out the door and watched him go, hands limply at his sides.

He took a deep breath and looked up at the dense clouds that hung overhead, their layered movements above him swirling with menace.

"Just let him go," a voice next to him said.

The rumbling of distant thunder came hurtling from above.

Knuckles turned to see Lupe's eyes staring into his, and looked back to the clouds. "A storm is coming..." he said, quietly.

"In more ways than one," Lupe agreed.

"I..." Knuckles said slowly to the wind, "I've never been responsible for somebody's death before. I've never seen the fallout of it from this perspective."

"What do you mean by that?" Lupe asked him, starting to walk slowly. "I'm sure you've killed plenty before." After a moment, Knuckles found himself airily following her.

"I've never killed anyone." he responded, shaking his head. "I've seen death before, and grief and everything that comes out of that... I guess I feel like I should be offering some sort of consolation for what I've done. Or taking some sort of punishment. But I don't know what to do. If everyone were angry at me, that would be one thing... but they're just... sad. I've never really been in a position to see it from this angle."

"From this angle?"

Knuckles 'hmphed'. "By that, I mean any angle other than my own."

"Knuckles..." Lupe said, softly, not feeling quite safe of herself. "What happened? The rest of your race?"

"Ancient history," he shrugged. "It's not important."

Lupe looked at him in a funny manner. "If it goes some way to explaining why you are the way you are now, then I consider it important."

"Back on the island..." Knuckles began, but cut himself off.

The thought of reminiscing about his past with someone else seemed completely alien to him, and stopped him in his tracks. But when he looked at Lupe again, something about her expression seemed inviting. He sighed again.

"On the island," he began again, "was where myself and my race lived. We existed knowing about the rest of the world, but not much caring for it. We never had any dreams of conquest or settling, or spreading. We were self-sufficient, we relied on none other, and it remained that way for thousands of years. But two wizards learned of what kept the island floating; the master emerald. They decided they wanted it..."

"Naugus?" Lupe offered.

"Yeah." Knuckles nodded. "And another one. His name was Lazar.

"They came to the island, and demanded we hand them the emerald. They knew we couldn't. Not without dropping the island to the planet's surface and killing the entire race. They laid waste to my village. They eventually did take the emerald, and the island fell. Just like it's going to now."

They'd arrived at the power ring pool, and Lupe took a seat on a log sitting aside the water. She watched it absently, the gentle glow of the power ring generator at the bottom reaching up through the gently lapping water.

"So... your race..." she said, quietly.

"I was only young then," Knuckles said, taking a seat aside the wolf. "I didn't understand why at the time, but they took me with them. They teleported themselves and me to the mainland, and we watched it fall. No one else survived. It was just me."

"Knuckles..." Lupe whispered. "I'm sorry."

"I thought they wanted to raise me to work for them, or something." Knuckles smirked to himself. "But it had been Lazar's idea to take me with them. I guess something just irked him about being responsible for the total annihilation of an entire race, and perhaps sparing me was just his quiet way of atonement. I don't think Naugus cared. But after a while, he badgered Naugus enough to return me to the island, which was sitting a few hundred miles off the coast of Mobius North."

"Lazar returned you to the island?" Lupe raised an eyebrow.

"He returned me there, and convinced Naugus to place the emerald back, and raise the island again. The Master wasn't much use to them anyway, not without an appropriate device to channel its power through. It's really just a huge battery, for all intents and purposes."

Knuckles closed his eyes, and continued. "When I was returned to the island, I saw the aftermath. Everything I remembered was destroyed. Waterlogged corpses lay everywhere. My entire history, washed away, or drowned. Everything and everyone I cared about, gone. I decided there that it would never happen again. All I had left was the island and the few pieces of its history I managed to recover. When the master was stolen again a while back, I'd seen, and I knew that Naugus was the only one with the power to bind the emerald back to the island again."

"So you went to him for help. Even after..." Lupe's eyes widened.

Knuckles stripped off a piece of bark with one of his barbs, and threw it into the water. Watching it float there, he said, "I didn't have much of a choice. I'd like to have killed him, but not as much as I needed his help. That's why..." He turned to Lupe, and looked at her with a slight hint of shyness -- a look that Lupe never expected to see from him.

"That's why it hurts so much to see what I've done to you all. All for nothing. All I did was help the one that I hate more than anything else in the world."

His eyes closed, fists clenching slowly. "The one that took everything away from me..."

He heard Lupe moving near him, and his eyes jutted open again when he felt her touch.

The wolf quietly slinked up aside him and wrapped her arms around his waist, brushing a cheek against his.

"What are you doing...?" His heart stopped briefly as her grip around him became tighter. For someone who'd lived most of their life completely alone, this feeling of closeness was so new. So unreal...

"I understand now..." he heard her whisper, in his ear. He sat there for a moment, stunned, and felt some kind of release inside that he'd never known existed.

Then, she pulled back, and raised to her feet. "I don't think you should keep that a secret. If you can make your reasons known, I don't think anyone will question you again."

---

"_Where were you when the brains were handed out?"_

Sonic remembered that he'd had dreams of this sort of thing happening before.

Nightmares.

Sally was like a piece of him, and he was a piece of her. For every brash thing he did, he did it only because Sally's logic condoned it. For every extreme decision she made, she made it only because she had faith in Sonic to carry it out.

Through their differences and contrasts, Sonic and Sally were compliments to each other. And their personalities were bound together with their souls. Sonic had never felt the underlying connection with anyone else that he did with Sally. It was never spoken between them, but she was the yin to his yang; two halves that while so very different, one was nothing without the other.

Without her, a giant piece of him had gone missing. He wanted to chase her fleeting soul into the night, and reclaim it – even if it meant that he'd never return to see the world he'd fought all his life for. He just wanted her again.

He was running unsteadily, yet quickly, along one of Robotropolis' barren roads, the now pouring rain beating against his face. The bright lights of the surrounding buildings whizzed by his vision, in ophidian slithers of neon. He pounded the concrete harder and harder, faster and faster, struggling to reach that state of Zen where the world was moving past him too quickly for him to care for it.

But this time, no matter how fast he ran, everything kept up with him. All his fears and doubts were at his sides during every step. The wind in his ears blocked out any noise, yet over it, a screaming, banshee-like voice inside his head. His problems kept pace with him, nipping at his heels.

He'd stood in the middle of an auditorium, just after they'd destroyed Doomsday. He remembered looking into her eyes, as the cheers of the rest of Knothole assailed their ears.

"Without a villain, what are heroes gonna do?" he'd asked.

She'd looked into his eyes with a confident smile, just before she'd pressed her lips to his. "You'll always be _my _hero, Sonic Hedgehog."

_Never again_, he heard the voice as it crowed in his head. He'd officially relinquished his 'hero' status the day he left Knothole with Tails.

He ran. Faster, and faster, till his heart pounded in his chest and in his head, every muscle in his body screaming for respite.

He entered Chuck's hideout with a clamor, stumbling fro and about like a drunkard.

Chuck had seen him descending the stairs, and rushed to catch him. "Sonie? I heard from Rotor what's going on... are you alright?"

Sonic gazed lightly into the face of his roboticized uncle, lolling in his head lazily. "She's gone, Unc..." Then, Sonic's eyes closed, and he passed out, taking a pile of documents and books down with him.

Chuck didn't need to hear another word. Sonic was a wreck. Gently, he laid his nephew down on the floor, and tossed a blanket over him.

Sonic's mind swam in his sleep, reliving the memories more vividly than ever.

Maybe the answers and solutions would come in time. For better or worse. But it didn't stop him asking...

_Why?_

---

When he awoke, Chuck was still sitting next to him. Strangely, his rest had had some strange effect on him; he felt a little more energized, and clear-minded than before. Shaking his head slowly, he shuffled to sit up, and turned to his uncle.

"How long was I out?" he asked.

Chuck shrugged. "Only about half an hour. How do you feel?"

"I think my brains have grown back."

"That's a good thing," Chuck said, with a jovial huff. "Because the game plan's come in. Rotor's been transmitting me the plans for what action Knothole's going to take over the next few days."

Sonic groaned a little. "Oh yeah? What?"

"You remember Adramalech, the cannon that was supposed to wipe out Knothole?"

"Yeah, the one Antoine put out of commission..."

"Right, well, it's been abandoned since then. We've calculated that if the island hits the ground as is, we won't be able to clear its radius of effect with the transport we have. But if we can get the cannon online again and fire it at the island, we can separate it into a number of smaller pieces."

"Uh-huh, great..." Sonic nodded, absently, staring at his feet. "Won't there still be fallout from that?"

Chuck shrugged. "Yes, there'll be fallout. We can't completely escape all the damage of the island falling on us, but we can at least try to minimize it. If you remember Griff, he's mobilized his best fighters and grouped together a small convoy of hovercraft to transport the Master Emerald over to the cannon. They'll need an escort..."

Sonic looked at Chuck, waiting for him to continue, until he realized he was supposed to reply. "Let me guess... _I'm_ the escort."

"You're still the best, Sonie." Chuck smiled.

Sonic groaned, and threw himself back down on the floor. "Tell them they can do it themselves. Just this once... I don't care anymore."

"Listen, Sonic, I know how you're feeling..." Chuck leaned over his nephew, his metallic features contorting into a frown. "We're all grieving over Sally just as you are. But for the moment, there's no time to give up hope."

"Hope?" Sonic sniffed out a bitter laugh, one that defied his character in every way that Chuck had known. "Why do we waste time on hope, Unc? Every day's just been a struggle my whole life. Just another battle or chance to get ourselves cooked, killed, turned into robots, whatever. That's the way it always has been. You fight and you fight and you fight, but it just takes more and more away from you."

He closed his eyes, feeling a wetness build behind them. "That's how it's always been. It's how it always will be."

"Sonic..." a voice came from around the corner, the stairwell out of Chuck's hideout. A smooth voice, so familiar...

"Sal?" Sonic whipped his head toward the source of the voice.

But it wasn't Sally.

It was someone else, that he hadn't seen before. It was a dark cream feline, her back stroked with black stripes that arched around her back, coiled around her arms and legs. Her face was flanked with long, black hair, and she stood in the doorway with her arms crossed, a long tail flicking slowly around behind her.

"Who are you?" Chuck said, also startled at the appearance. "How'd you find this place?"

"My name..." she responded with an even voice, "…is Nicole. Don't you recognize me?"

Sonic and Chuck looked at each other, then back at her.

"Pleased to meet you Nicole, I'm the queen of Mobius." Sonic glared at her. "Hope the flying pigs didn't give you too much trouble on the way here. Now, who are you? _Really?_"

"It's cool, my main hedgehog." the cat responded, tilting her head a little.

Sonic shook his head in disbelief. It was indeed Nicole's voice. Sally and herself had always sounded similar... and he couldn't help but chuckle darkly at the old catchphrase, especially with the disjointed, clearly artificial manner in which Nicole always delivered it.

"My shell may be different, but it is still me. And I still retain a certain few log entries that were secretly recorded by the princess."

Sonic's eyebrows shot up. "Secret log entries? Care to share?"

"Perhaps in due time." Nicole said, pulling a chair up to Sonic and sitting on it backwards, leaning over the back of it. One of Sally's old mannerisms.

She leaned over him, and told him, "But for the moment, if I am to summarize, I would say she did not wish to see anyone giving up hope, least of all you. In her words, the end of this road may be near, but there is still work to be done."

Nicole moved closer again, and placed a hand on Sonic's shoulder. She spoke now, her voice perfectly matching Sally's:

"The world still needs a hero, Sonic Hedgehog."

Sonic was silent for a long while, and then finally sighed deeply. "Alright. Time to juice it, one last time. Just for you, Sal."

---

Adramalech.

_Such a poetic choice of title, _Robotnik thought to himself.

The overlord was sitting alone in his throne. Nothing in the room moved. No bots rushed back and forth. No screens flickered. No lights hummed. Not even the portly dictator himself moved a finger. Though the room was silent and enshrouded in darkness, there was a mess of activity going on in it; messages whizzing back and forth, orders being relayed, commands received and interpreted elsewhere in the city. Robotnik now sat silently, and was literally plugged into the computer network through ports installed during his robiticization. He was the calm, cold nerve center of Robotropolis.

In his mind, he had been spending the better part of a day poring through all of the masses of information stored in what remained of Lilith's immense memory systems. It was only an hour ago, seemingly an eternity ago to him, that he'd discovered her plans and specifications for Adramalech, and the reports she'd filed on the outcome of that endeavor. Plans to extract the Master Emerald from the Floating Island and install it as a power source for the cannon had been successful, but intervention from a lone coyote had all but destroyed it.

After a month without further activity on the front of the cannon, it had been abandoned to gather dust; calling it back into action would be a simple matter for the Freedom Fighters now that they had their precious emerald back. Such a conclusion to him would normally be enough of a cause for alarm… after all, who was to say they would not use it against Robotropolis?

But survival was no longer really a factor for him now. If he and Robotropolis were to suddenly perish in the blast of an immense ball of nuclear fire, he'd be content in at least knowing he tried.

But so long as he knew an island was above them, about to plummet and send them all to their deaths, he still had some ambition.

He wanted them to die.

And he knew they wouldn't be firing on Robotropolis. When your back's against the wall, you have to first throw off an incoming threat before you think about unleashing any attacks of your own. They'd fire it at the island, disintegrating it so they'd be able to minimize losses, to keep that glimmer of hope burning instead of being crushed to oblivion in a cataclysmic collision of worlds. He knew this, because he knew they had no other choice.

Finally, he disconnected himself from the datavaults, and every light and monitor in the room suddenly flickered to life.

Robotnik rose from his throne, and approached the intercom. He slammed his fist down on it, and issued the order:

"All available forces in Robotropolis, including essential working personnel! We are about to abandon this city and stage a full-frontal assault on the Adramalech cannon. The Freedom Fighters may well be there already. Your primary target is the Master Emerald. Prevent the cannon from being utilized at all costs, even if destroying the cannon itself is necessary! Let no Freedom Fighter leave the scene alive!"

Throughout Robotropolis, the streets that were empty minutes ago were now suddenly flooded in a stampede of moving robotic bodies. SWATbots scrambled to assemble in their assigned squads, factories outfitted worker bots with basic weaponry. One by one, factories, power plants, refineries, hangars, processing centers and computer stations were all shut down and closed.

Above, trails cut through the sky as every one of the last aerial jets and transports left their stations.

Finally, amidst the massive moving force, a titanic battlecruiser cut its own shadow out of the sky, a dark cloud about to rain molten death on anything that got in its way.

At the bridge of the cruiser, flanked by two enhanced SWATbots, stood Robotnik, hands clasped behind him.

"It ends today."

---

A million miles away from all of the chaos, a channeling of a very different set of forces was at work.

Miles "Tails" Prower had spent every day since Sonic left him devoted entirely to his studies and training. His day was a veritable regime of disciplines, each one just as hard as the other. For breakfast, it was weights and combat training with Christof. For lunch, it was meditation with the mistress of the Sanctuary's library. And for dinner, well… one had to eat sometime.

Tails stood silently in the middle of the large, cavernous room he was in. He kept his stance that he'd been taught for channeling of supernatural energies; feet together, shoulders back, arms out, palms up. His eyes were closed, and behind them, his mind was devoted to a singular task; to channel these mental and spiritual energies to a point where they could be projected to a physical form.

"That's it, Miles! Remember that your primary goal is to channel the energies you are building to the manifestation of your desired effect. Keep this in mind!"

The library mistress, a lynx by the name of Marr, stood over in the corner of the room with a notebook in hand, watching the boy intently. Over the few weeks she had been acquainted with him, she'd seen the results of his rut and his direction; he'd applied himself to every inch of his quickly growing abilities, and the change was evident in both his character and his physique, the developments in both impressing her greatly.

"Maintain your concentration! Remember your goal!"

Tails' goal, this time, was his first attempt at summoning a Void portal; something that no one had ever done before, apart from the wayward student Naugus. The goal here wasn't really to get it open, at least not for Marr; she didn't expect that of him after having spent so little time training. But still, with his recent growth in potential, the thought of him succeeding didn't seem so alien to her.

Even now, he stood unflinching in the center of the room, at the focal point of a massive round Thamaeillic emblem that had been painted upon the floor. Black candles burned at each of the star's six points. Around his once scarecrow arms now were thickly corded strands of wiry muscle, and his stature now shot up past her height. His intense workouts and diet had done wonders to bolster his already quickly improving physical shape, and his sessions with her had produced a similar effect in his mind, where nothing but dedication and concentration were his goals, and his only intent to improve both his own life and the lives of those around him. Standing there in his black Thamaeillic uniform, he was the perfect representation of the Brotherhood and everything that it stood for.

On a personal note, his one-on-one discussions with Marr had led her to taking a liking to the kid that was more than strictly professional, but until he had succeeded in his goal of opening a void portal, she had no intentions of letting him know about that, if ever she would bother to at all.

In the center of the hexagram, a bright aura was beginning to gather around Tails' body. Normally, such auras were around everyone, only able to be seen after intense training of the mind. But now, as Tails' concentration multiplied with each second, the aura was growing from a subtle glow to that of an ethereal blaze, lighting up the whole room with lashes of blue flame.

Marr had never seen anything like it before in her life, not even from Christof.

The heatless inferno that wreathed Tails' body quickly built bigger and brighter, to the point of being almost blinding.

Marr could barely believe it, but she could see what was going to happen here. She dropped her notes, and ran over to the fox.

Tails' mind was almost completely concentrated to his task, but still had enough in reserve to open his eyes briefly. He saw the magical flames in front of his eyes, and beyond that, the fair-haired lynx instructor.

There were tears in her eyes.

"Miles, you are there! Release your energies! Open the portal!"

And with that, Tails relaxed.

The maelstrom in his mind suddenly ceased, and every muscle relaxed. The sound in his mind became the cosmic roar that filled the room, and with a flash of blinding light and sparks, it was there.

A Void portal lay spinning in the far side of the room, and Marr could feel herself being pulled towards it. She and Tails were far enough away from it to avoid being moved more than about a meter until they caught themselves, however.

Tails and Marr both stood there, watching it, dumbfounded.

"I never thought I'd see this in my life…" she said.

"Neither did I…" she heard him reply, the kid-like voice he'd sported weeks ago now replaced with the croon of a cultured adult.

"Miles, I must admit something to you…" Marr began, and Tails turned to her intently. "You were not supposed to be able to do this. Not yet. Christof and I had sat down at many times and projected your mental and physical growth; at best, it should've been months before you reached this point, if ever at all!"

"So…" Tails studied her features. "What does this mean now? Should I… go through now?"

"Of course you should… it's what you were here for, wasn't it?" Marr said to him, staring right back.

"Yes, it was…" Tails said, then fell silent. "Why are you crying, Marr?"

"I…" Marr looked away for a second and sniffed, hiding her face behind a few strands of blonde. "I'm just very proud of you, Miles. And honestly, I'm overwhelmed... I never thought I'd see something this monumental…"

Tails' expression of concern turned to a sincere smile. "I don't know what to say…"

Marr put a finger to his lips, pursing them. "Shh… you need not say anything. Go through that portal, boy, and get your king back out!"

Tails nodded his thanks, turned to the swirling light of the portal, and dashed headlong into it.

For a second, he wondered if his mind was gone. His senses were overwhelmed by the roar of the portal, the crossroads between two realities. Patterns of yellow and purple assailed his eyes, and every second he changed his mind on whether he was falling down, up, or any other which way. Invisible forces from the corner of his eye tugged at each part of his body, in all directions. Then…

…it stopped.

The feeling of weightlessness suddenly transformed to the exact opposite, as through closed eyes, Tails felt himself slamming at full force into something… something hard.

Rolling with the fall, he skidded to a halt, using an outstretched leg to maintain his balance. Opening his eyes and letting out a deep breath, he slowly rose to his feet. He surveyed the landscape that lay before him.

Tails had never seen the void with his own eyes before, but he'd heard the stories told to him around the fire at night of visits the other Freedom Fighters had made; they described vistas of endless, pure blue, crystals arranged in shapes that could morph from one state to another with a flick of Naugus' wrist, endless oceans, high towers, arching paths… all forged of that same cold crystal.

What he saw now, was a bitter shell of the grandiose visions described by the stories he'd been told.

What lay before him now, was proof that the Void had not once been so lifeless as he'd been led to believe.

The blue of the crystal that had been described was now a dull gray, the only partial aspect of life to the architecture now gone. It was like walking around inside a black and white movie. Behind him, the Void portal was still open, spinning and crackling with a life of its own.

He slowly began to pace forward, spying the long, winding crystal bridge that led to the crystal replica of Castle Acorn. He could see the tower that once sat at the top of the castle had since caved in, its jagged edges for wounds forming razor-sharp blades. Tails slowly set across the path.

He took a step forward, then another, and then stopped as soon as he heard a faint cracking. He remained for a minute, listening intently, but heard no more. He took another step, but with nothing greeting this one but silence, he continued on, again and again, until he reached about halfway across. Below him, he could see only an endless expanse of more of that same dull crystal, thousands of meters below. A few shards of it could be seen rattling their way down, until they were out of sight.

Then, he felt the cracking sound return, and erupt into a cacophonous shattering. Massive chunks of the bridge gave way to his left and right, sending millions of jagged specks flying into the air. Tails ran as fast as he could, but it the pieces behind him were fast giving way. He considered flying the rest of the way until he remembered his tails wouldn't be able to carry him, constrained as they were under the hefty black robes he was wearing. He got closer to the end of the bridge, and was just about there when he felt the very section beneath him suddenly cease to be there; forcing all of his might into it, he leapt off of it with a powerful push, sending him careening over the gaping abyss for what seemed like an eternity…

He collided with the jagged edge of the opposing landmass, catching onto it just at chest level. His tiny body bounced right back off of the massive mountain from the impact, but he caught onto the edge, just barely, forcing his claws to bite into the crystal for added grip. He was grateful for having those claws exposed; he'd taken his gloves weeks ago as part of his dress code, and really had no desire to replace them since.

Hanging there for a moment, he finally hauled himself back up onto the edge with a strained grunt. He took a few moments to catch his breath, and looked back over the edge; the rest of the bridge was nowhere to be seen.

He turned around again, and saw the glass castle looming before him. He remembered once again why he was here, and began running up the steps to the castle's doorway.

Though he'd never been here before, he remembered the layout of Castle Acorn from before the coup, and as the knowledge flooded back to him, he began boldly traversing the lobby.

"Hello?" the fox called out. "Is there anyone home? King?"

The only answer was his own voice echoing around the room, and the dry, compressed sounds of his footsteps. He went up a spiraling flight of stairs, rounded a corner, went through a doorway, his target being the king's bedroom.

He found it, and entered. At the end of the large room sat the king's bed, with him in it.

"King Max," Tails said, as he began to approach.

The king appeared to be no less than peacefully asleep, and Tails shook him gently to wake him. But the King didn't stir. It was only after Tails had stopped momentarily to observe his breathing that he noticed that there was none to observe.

A check of his pulse confirmed it; the King was dead.

A thousand thoughts raced through the kitsune's mind that very second, each one too fast for him to catch and process. He sat on the edge of the bed, next to the king's body, silently wondering if he was too late by months, weeks, days, or perhaps just seconds. He'd never know, now.

With a heavy sigh, he stood to his feet. In the corner of his eye, he noticed something, sitting there upon a dull, grey, crystal table: a slip of paper. He slowly walked over to it, and picked it up:

_If you are reading this letter, I am no doubt dead. I can only hope it is one of the good ones that find it. For so many years I have sat dormant in this Void. At first, I was waiting for rescue; when that never came, I waited for a solution to appear… but that never came either._

_The void has been my home now, for what seems to be forever. In these years, I've had the one or two visits or events, but they have only solidified my belief that I will never leave this place. My only company over this time has been, for the most part, the sorcerer Naugus. I've hardly been inclined to converse with him, however; his very presence is an insult to all the virtues I stand for. I do not know him. I do not wish to know him. But as an insult as he is, he also is a reminder; a way for me to remember that I cannot let myself slip into the depths of insanity, or succumb to the vain hope that there lies anything for me now beyond this place._

_Nothing else waits for me now, but I sit here writing, and though my path has met its end, I am proud of the trials that have led to it. But only a while ago, a while that stands as a short spell in my seemingly endless existence here, my daughter came to rescue me, and though she failed in that, I witnessed what an incredible example she has become of her kind, and I am intensely proud of her. I can only hope that she lives on to pass my legacy down to future generations. _

_But with that visit, I am also now convinced that I will never return to the life that I once held so dear. My kingdom is lost to me, and I care not whether or not it goes on. Petty things like politics and red tape are nothing compared to the vastness of existence and even the thought of this life is nothing compared to the infinite patterns of what lays beyond._

_Naugus has left this place now, and I know that it is for good now. For before he left, he'd discovered what keeps this place to define its nature; after endless searching, he came upon what can only be described as the heart of the Void; indeed, I saw it in his hands before he left. It can only be described literally as some kind of ethereal, beating muscle, the mystic waves it sends off with each pump reinvigorating everything in this plane of existence, including he and myself. With this in mind, with the heart as something that can be literally transported where it is pleased, the Void becomes in a manner a portable place, its influence spreading wherever it is present. _

_I wonder, now, if this place was once a planet or civilization not unlike my own Mobius, before the wretched pounding of that accursed artifact was heard upon these lands._

_What pains me, then, is the knowledge that Naugus has taken that curse back to my home, where my seed resides. I can only hope that if one reads this, they may be able to destroy the heart and douse the possibility of that place becoming anything like this one._

_Naugus would never have let me go with him back to Mobius; I did not expect him to do so. He wishes nothing but conquest and destruction in that place. His heart is black as pitch. _

_But with his disappearance, and the bad omen he may very well have taken back to Mobius with him, he has at least left me a parting gift._

_Once, I had waited for my rescue. Then, I had waited for the eventual return of my kingdom. Then, I had waited for the eventual return of myself to Mobius. Now, I wait for nothing but my own death. And now, with the Void's heart no longer beating here, this place is set to wither and die away, and I along with it. I can only welcome it now; even as I write this, my muscles grow tired and weak. The release draws ever nearer._

_I can only mention one regret of mine; that I trusted that bastard Robotnik, and allowed him to put me in this position, after betraying my own people. My conduct during the Great War has shamed me, but even worse than that… shamed the lives of my children and the lives of my citizens. Robotnik's betrayal afterwards was a just punishment for the wrongs I had done, but hardly so for the innocent ones that lost their lives before and after his uprising._

_My only consolation comes from my faith that such a tragedy has shaped my Sally into the incredibly strong woman I have witnessed her to be, and I know that strength in her and her compatriots will carry my world through to see another day. I have long since shed my title as King; but where I have failed as a king, it is heartening to know that my success as a father carries on in her heart, which is altogether far more important to me than any other accomplishment I can possibly summon to my mind._

_This is the end for me, but to whomever is reading this, please see to it that this is not the end of you. Show the world that there is still a life beating wherever there is love and hope. That is my learning for this life, and it is what I would like to teach to all if ever I had the chance again. _

_There is no time in this world for petty squabbles. There should be no reigning power, no ruling figurehead. Our only god is love, our only king is faith, and our only laws are our own judgment. We have all served these from the day of our conception, and shall do so into eternity. Answer to them above all else, lest this whole world be lost._

_As I was,_

_Maximillan Acorn_

Tails folded the letter up, and slipped it into his robe. Slowly, he turned to leave, but before he did, he craned his head over to the direction of the dead one in the bed – one who had not been just a king, but a father and husband, a friend, a colleague, a mentor.

"I'll show them, Max…" he whispered under his breath.

Removing his robe for a minute, he traversed the chasm with the help of his three tails, and prepared to enter the portal. With the heart of the Void now absent, there was no opposing force providing him any resistance to his exit. He leapt in with ease, and upon being thrust out again into the spellcasting chamber, he closed the portal again with a flick of his hand. The swirling, cosmic vapors folded over and vanished to nothingness with little more than a crackle of electricity and a spark of light.

Christof and Marr were standing in the middle of the chamber, waiting for him.

"So, Tails…" the Lord asked, "what happened? Did you find your king?"

The kitsune fox looked down at the letter in his hand, the creases in it folding slightly in his loose grip. "Christof… tell your people, that they don't need to hold onto old grudges any longer. The king's dead, and so is his kingdom. I want us to take every able body we know, member of this brotherhood or not, and make our way back down to Mobius South."

"Oh?" Christof smirked, folding his arms. "And what are we going to do when we get there?"

Tails looked up at him, and smiled wanly. "We're going to take our world back."

---

It seemed like only yesterday, that Antoine had remembered boarding the convoy en route to the massive long-range disintegrator codenamed Adramalech. Now, he was on his way to that place again, this time, he was rubbing shoulders with comrades instead of malevolent robots and those abominable things that were half-wolf, half… something else.

He was in the back of a light personnel carrier hovercraft, which was skimming the surface of the planet lightly as it sped through the grassy plains of Mobius South. They'd known that firing this cannon and destroying the soon-to-fall island was their last chance at escaping total annihilation, and Nicole had confirmed that Robotnik would arrive at the same conclusion. With that in mind, they'd prepared themselves for the fight of their lives.

Though the Wolfpack had been all but decimated, the stockpiles of weapons and equipment they had liberated from Robotropolis ages ago still remained; when Lupe's scout team had stopped by their old headquarters, inside the Wolfpack's ancient caverns, their caches were still there, just as they'd been left. The supplies included many of the SWATbots former armament; laser rifles, and armor plating, which had since been haphazardly converted into a crude form of combat armour. A healthy assortment of assault rifles and some heavy explosive equipment had been allowed to pile up, as well.

In the back of the transport, Antoine now donned this armour and had his plasma rifle settled between his legs, as had the other twenty-odd Freedom Fighters from Sally's and Griff's groups that were at his sides. Most of the faces here were of those he'd never met before. A few of them were some of Knothole's miscellaneous residents that he'd never bothered to speak with. But one at his direct right, he knew.

"Nervous, Sugah?" Bunnie said to him, giving him a nudge.

Antoine shrugged. "'Tis only natural to be nervous at a time like this, is it not?"

"Yeah…" the rabbit chuckled, softly. "I just hope it's us gettin' there first, 'fore Robotnik's got his grubby hands on that cannon again."

"Not to worry…" Antoine smiled. "Tze ball is, how you say, in our court now… we have a head starts on him, this time."

"Y'all really have changed, haven't ya, Ant?" Bunnie noted, a single ear perked up. The other draped over her eye a little. "I wonder if that scared coyote I knew all my childhood still lives in that noggin o' yours, somewhere?"

The coyote shuffled a little, slightly adjusting a plate of the body armour that was wrapped tightly around his torso. It had never been designed for Mobians, and thus comfort in the equipment had been eschewed for the sake of utility. "Trust me, Bunnie… I am being scared to death of this situation at tze moment. But…" he sighed, "I think you feel it, tze same as I am feeling it. Tze alternation to all of this is worse. There is no time for being afraid…"

"Listen," Bunnie said, suddenly oblivious of all the others that were crowded around them inside that cramped transport. "I know yer still hurtin' about Sally…"

"I… cared for her greatly." Antoine sighed. "Though she hurt me, I still miss her…"

"We all do, hon."

Antoine nodded. "I am supposing there is only one thing left we could do for her, now."

Bunnie looked at him, leaning closer to stare right into his eyes.

"Survive…" Antoine whispered. "That is all we have to do. It is all we can do."

"Ant?" Bunnie asked coyly, quietly, licking her lips.

"Mm?"

"Antoine, if we make it out of this together in one piece, what say you and I—"

_Crunch._

Everybody in the transport jolted with the sudden lurching of the transport coming to a stop. Bunnie tried to continue speaking, but her voice was lost in the sudden noise of the restless troops chatting nervously amongst each other.

The speaker, which sat right above Antoine's head, stabbed at his ears with its announcement from the transport's driver:

"Everyone, get ready to take up defensive positions around the cannon as soon as the doors open! Secure your positions! Keep your eyes on the Master Emerald as soon as it begins moving! You all know what is riding on this. Let's go!"

The transport doors rolled open, and like with the other twenty or so transports that had been sent, Mobians stampeded from each, heading towards the cannon. They were at ground level; a series of interconnected bridges encircled the base of the weapon, and beyond them was a small moat of water. Nestled between two massive cliffs of hard, dense rock, there was left only two ways to penetrate the cannon; from the front, or from the top. Robotnik's forces were expected to approach from both.

Bunnie ran with the rest of them toward the cannon. She looked about herself, hoping to see Antoine at her side, but found nothing but dozens of other, nondescript Mobian faces.

---

Mere meters away from where Bunnie and Antoine had alighted from their transport, Knuckles could feel the leering eyes upon him, coming from every group of Mobian forces he passed. He kept his pace brisk, moving inside the front entrance to the cannon's base structure, clutching the Master Emerald with both arms.

He was flanked by a small squad of three Freedom Fighters, heavily armed except for one. Sonic circled around Knuckles' group and scouted ahead inside the dark halls of the abandoned cannon, looking left and right for any sign of danger or ambush. Next to Knuckles was Nicole, accompanying them to help with setting up and configuring the cannon. Finally, Griff kept at the rear, watching for signs of movement.

They moved in a leapfrog fashion, the narrow beams of flashlights lighting up the slightly rusted metallic structure of the base. In some places, vines from the surrounding flora outside had managed to creep up through the floor gratings, snaking up along the walls. They weaved in and out of conduits, forming some twisted type of marriage between the natural and the unnatural.

But there were no sounds except for their footsteps. The cannon had long since been deserted, and they reached the top floor without mishap.

Nothing was said during the whole exchange. Everyone had been briefed of their tasks and got to them in short order. Knuckles went through a pressure-sealed doorway, and into the cannon's now dormant reactor core, twin flashlight beams hovering from behind him to light the way. Nicole was at his side, and watched absently as he slotted the crystal back upon the crucible, which he'd taken it from during his last visit here.

It settled in easily, just as he'd lifted it out of there in the first place.

He turned back to Nicole, who was checking the sights and magazine on the shotgun she'd been armed with. "Alright, Nicole. Emerald's back in. Now what?"

"We proceed to the base of the reactor chamber," she explained. "With the emerald's sudden absence last time you were here, several circuit breakers would have tripped in the main power conduits as a result. We are to make our way down and reset them."

"And then?" Sonic asked.

"When all systems are online and operational, we proceed to the control center on the top floor, and input the firing coordinates. We then hold position until the cannon is charged. Then, we fire."

They were already moving. The central reactor chamber was a large, circular space, which stretched from the base of the cannon to the top floors. A staircase spiraled all the way down. The chamber echoed with the rough clunking of combat boots upon the metal gratings.

"How long's this cannon going to take to charge?" Griff asked.

"Cannon batteries were at 100 already when Antoine had prevented its firing, but it is certain now that those batteries would have lost some of their energy to time. Still, charging should not be expected to take more than an hour."

"Oh, man…" Sonic growled, ducking under a low pipe that stretched from the outer wall to the inner column. "An hour? They'll be all over us by then!"

"Correct." Nicole responded, simply.

"You know what," Sonic said, "Nicole, take Griff and get back up to the control room. Me and Knucklehead here'll get those circuit breakers un-tripped."

Nicole immediately stopped mid-stride, causing Griff to run into her. "As you wish, my main hedgehog."

Griff grabbed a walkie-talkie from his combat webbing, and tossed it in Sonic's direction. "Hang onto this. Then we can get Nicole to help you out if you need it."

The hedgehog snatched it out of the air. "You got one for Nicole?"

"I do not require one." Nicole's voice came out of it. Nicole's lips didn't move.

Sonic looked back at her, and smirked. "Right…" He pointed his flashlight down into the shaft, then looked at Knuckles. "Alright… ready to jam?"

"Ready," Knuckles nodded.

The two simultaneously grabbed the handrail of the staircase, and leapt over it, into the darkness below.

They landed on the basement floor with a splash. A thin layer of water sloshed around their ankles down here; it seemed the lake around them had started to seep into the cannon's workings. The light from Sonic's flashlight reflected off the water, playing upon the walls. The halls down here were grimy, pipes and conduits skinned with moss and vines. The whole image appeared more like the results of nature, instead of science.

Sonic's communicator crackled into life with the sound of Griff's voice. "How are you guys doing down there?"

Sonic hit the 'Talk' button. "We've got water," he said. "That gonna cause any problems?"

"No." Nicole's voice came through. "You must find a switchboard in one of the maintenance tube 13-B. Reset the switch, and the reactor will activate to restore primary the cannon's primary functions."

"Gotcha," Sonic responded. "We're on it."

Back up on the top floor, Nicole was rushing from console to console, toggling switches and pulling levers. She couldn't program the cannon itself yet; not until power was on. But there were a few other toggles that were just as necessary, that she could do now.

Griff stood at the window, watching her. "How do you know what to do with this cannon?"

"When I had destroyed Ariel's kernel, I had gained access to her primary knowledge base. All of her data was transferred during the exchange, including blueprints for Adramalech's systems." Nicole told him, not sparing him a glance.

"You _merged_ with Ariel?" Griff asked.

"In some capacity, yes."

Something about this worried the billy-goat, and suddenly he found himself questioning her. They were entrusting the fate of their entire race to this entity, and if this 'Nicole' were really Ariel, and that Ariel deceiving them…

It didn't matter. There was no time for contingency plans, he reminded himself. Their backs were against the wall, and to double back or question anything at this moment would inevitably spell death for them.

Taking a look out the window, this thought solidified in his mind.

On the horizon, he saw their shadows cast. It looked like a locust plague – only he knew that was a fleet of Stealth bots and Bombers approaching, headed up by a massive flying monstrosity.

"Good lord…" he breathed.

His communicator sparked to life suddenly with chatter, and he could hear the distant rumblings of gunfire from down the chasm.

"Griff, this is Dane of Ground Layer One. A battalion has been spotted, approaching from the east! They're coming through the canyon, and an air fleet is approaching from that direction as well. We are engaging now!"

"Dane, this is Griff. How many of the enemy are we looking at?"

"It…" the voice came back, amidst the sounds of gunfire. "It appears to be thousands, sir."

The Freedom Fighters had arranged their forces to suit the defenses that had already been set up for Adramalech; there were three layers of defense on the ground level, separated by thick blast walls and checkpoints, and an extensive array of surface-to-air weaponry that sat upon the top. The first ground layer would be opening fire upon the oncoming horde now.

With only around one hundred Freedom Fighters assembled at the cannon, they were outnumbered at least twenty to one. The cannon was well dug-in and well defended, but the sheer number of forces Robotnik was throwing at them brought the odds of victory seriously into question.

He ran to Nicole, cocking the slide of his weapon. "Nicole, they're coming. We need to get this thing working now!"

No sooner had these words left his mouth, when every console suddenly lit up, and every room in the cannon's interior was flooded with harsh, fluorescent light.

Sonic and Knuckles had found the power.

Nicole did not even bother to grant Griff a reply. She immediately pulled up a chair, and got to work.

---

Antoine stood outside the pillbox he'd picked to use as cover, and looked at the looming concrete wall that divided the first and second defense layers. They were sandwiched in at both sides by the walls of the canyon, that seemed to stretched hundreds of meters above all of them. Bunnie and himself had been assigned to second layer, and thus they could not do much but sit and wait to see when the first one would give out, and the waves of destruction would begin poring upon them.

The sounds and the tremors coming from beyond that armored gate suggested that it was only that few meters of concrete and reinforced steel that separated them from the fires of Hell. Looking in the other direction, he could see the shape of the cannon itself cutting a silhouette out of the evening sky. Soon, night would fall upon them.

He could see lights turning on in sequence from inside the cannon, and it slowly began to lurch into motion… it was aligning itself to be fired, but he knew still that it was far from ready.

The tremor of an explosion somewhere on the other side of the wall rippled right through his body.

It felt wrong to be sitting and waiting for everyone on the other side of that wall to be slaughtered. Looking up, he saw there were guard towers at either side of the wall. Not sparing a moment to think, he hefted his plasma gun and jogged over to it. Hanging his weapon from his combat webbing, he leapt up onto the ladder and began climbing.

Crouched behind some sandbags, Bunnie was watching silently from below, her heart pounding.

What greeted Antoine as he reached the tower's cabin, was a panorama of hell.

There was only about twenty or so Mobians dug in for the first layer, but they were pouring molten death into the approaching robot horde. At the sides, two mounted chainguns were firing constantly, piles and piles of shell casings at their sides. Freedom Fighters were keeping their heads low, bobbing up from behind cover briefly to get in a few shots. The lights from their plasma weaponry bathed the scene in a haze of red. The carnage was peppered with the odd explosion here and there, from the few that were armed with RPGs and grenades.

The bots were being ripped to shreds by the dozens, but even with their defensive positions, the Freedom Fighters were already taking losses.

Out of nowhere, a volley of tracer fire began peppering the tower's cabin. Antoine reflexively kissed the deck for cover, but the Mobian who had taken position in there with him, a squirrel, was not so lucky. Riddled instantly with bullet holes, he dropped to the deck, dead. The hailstorm of gunfire ripped chunks of cement out of the cabin's walls, filling it with a cloud of dust.

Antoine took one look at his fallen companion and gagged. He remembered that he had a few grenades with him, and pulled one from his webbing. Twisting the top slightly, he heard the 'click' of its activation. He rose to his feet and tossed it as far out as he could, sending it into robotic legion.

It was no ordinary grenade. They weren't equipped with many, but the Wolfpack had earlier managed to scavenge a small cache of scrambling grenades. It exploded in a crackling ball of blue energy, sending out an intense electromagnetic pulse. It worked its magic on a good fifty-or-so SWATbots and Heavies, sending them into a spastic frenzy. They fired in all directions, shredding their own comrades in a spray of sparks and jagged metal before dropping to the ground, circuits fried.

The coyote took cover again immediately, as the remaining SWATbots drew their attention to eradicating him. He lay there for about a minute as they continued to fire. He backed up, and still on the floor, he grabbed another scrambler grenade, and tossed it out of the window as hard as he could. He heard another electronic 'boom', and the fire that besieged the tower's cabin immediately let up as the grenade made its effect on another contingent of SWATbots below.

Beneath him, he felt the floor suddenly shudder, and a dense crack appeared in the wall beside him. He heard the cacophonous sound of an explosive shell striking outside.

The floor buckled again, and one half of it began to shift. Loose bits of cement flew in all directions, dust crumbling and falling from the ceiling.

_The wall was collapsing._

Antoine turned, and made for the ladder immediately. Tossing his weapon to the ground below, he hooked his hands around the ladder's railings, and then did the same with his feet. He slid down to the ground in a matter of seconds, and hit the ground hard. He scooped up his plasma gun and began sprinting away.

He screamed out at the top of his lungs as he ran, trying to warn those around him. "Tze wall is about to fall! Everyone, stand clear! It's going to fall!"

The few around him caught his command, and began screaming it themselves. They all sprinted as hard as they could, as the first layer wall began to crush itself under its own weight. Enormous blocks of cement split and began sliding out of place, as if cut through by thousands of gigantic jigsaws. Dust kicked up in enormous clouds, debris flying everywhere. Some pieces of the fallout caught a few of the fleeing Mobians, knocking them clean off their feet or worse.

Antoine saw the cover of a foxhole up ahead, and leaped a full few meters into it. Thousands of chunks of concrete went sailing over his head.

He looked around desperately in every direction, but he could see nothing but the dense fog of dust. For a while, the battlefield was dead silent, aside from the muted clamor of the last few loose pieces of rock striking the ground all around him. His ears were ringing like crazy.

The first layer of defense was compromised. Now, it was their turn.

There was a good few minutes before he heard any movement, and could begin to see through the haze.

"They're coming over the rubble! Fire!" someone shouted. "Fire!!"

---

About a kilometer away from the carnage at ground level, atop Adramalech itself, things were not looking any better.

"How's it cracking, Nicole?" Sonic asked, hovering over the feline android's shoulder.

"Coordinates have been set, and Angel Island has been locked as the target." Nicole responded, as she punched in one command after another. On the screen in front of her, text and diagrams flashed on and off, scrolling in and out. "Adramalech's energy reserves have not depleted as much as I had originally calculated. The cannon is now at 96 charge."

Sonic raised an eyebrow. "So… how long till this baby's ready to fire?"

"About an hour, my main hedgehog."

Knuckles was staring out the window. Tracer fire and smoke trails from the cannon's aerial defenses filled the sky, blanketing the ground in the shadow of smoke and destruction. "An hour is too long. That battlecruiser will be on top of us by then."

"If that thing opens fire on this cannon, we're toast!" Sonic exclaimed, beginning to pace back and forth. "We have to put that thing out of commission, pronto! Nicole, put out an order to the Freedom Fighters to aim for it."

"Our surface-to-air defenses are not adequate to destroy the battlecruiser. It is Robotnik's main center of operations."

"So…" Sonic sighed. "We're screwed, then."

Nicole turned from the computer console for a moment, and smiled. "Chill. I'm thinking."

"Could we get aboard it somehow, and disable it from the inside?" Griff suggested.

"As I was concluding," Nicole answered. "Robotropolis has been entirely shut down to concentrate all efforts to destroying Adramalech. That means, the central processor that coordinates all of Robotnik's mobile forces must be contained upon that battlecruiser."

"So… we bring that ship down, and we stop Robotnik in his tracks." Knuckles nodded.

"You mean the SWATbots will just switch off?" Sonic raised both eyebrows. "But they talk to each other!"

"They still require a medium of transmission to receive orders and provide tactical data." Nicole explained. "Lilith was equipped with extensive knowledge of Robotnik's chain of command. It is to be assumed that Robotnik himself is at the controls. You should get on board, and eliminate him. I will then be able to take control of the cruiser."

"Whoa, whoa! Hold up." Sonic blurted out, holding a hand up. "Nicole, you aren't coming _with _us to do this. Don't you need to stay here and uh… operate this thing?"

Nicole shook her head. "Negative. All preparations are complete here. All that is left now is to wait until the cannon is fully charged. Firing will be automatic."

"Speaking of which," Sonic said to her, "Do we need to wait till this thing's _fully _charged? Can't you just pull the trigger now?"

"No," Nicole answered, flatly.

The hedgehog folded his arms. "Why not?"

Nicole smirked. "Do you want me to get technical?"

"No." Sonic said, rolling his eyes. "Alright. Get us to a way up to that cruiser. Time to pay our old friend 'Buttnik one more visit."

---

Adramalech was equipped with a small cargo hold and hangar, where the Freedom Fighters had stowed all of their transports they'd used to get everyone here. But among them, was a vehicle that stood out; one of Robotnik's Hover Units, converted by Rotor.

In the dim glow of the hangar's lighting, Nicole pointed to it. "There is our transport. We must hurry."

"Oh, no…" Sonic cautioned. "We are not taking _that _thing into the sky against an entire fleet! This thing couldn't outmaneuver a snail!"

"It will not need to." Nicole smiled. "Get in."

---

In a few minutes, they were in the air, making a beeline for Robotnik's fleet. Nicole handled the controls with ease, as if she'd known all of her 'life' – Sonic realized that she indeed would have known, since she'd taken on board all of Lilith's knowledge.

He flinched as he looked out of the view screen; stealth bots, bombers, and fighters whizzed past them in the opposite direction, left and right. Ahead, Robotnik's battlecruiser loomed, a great, black engine roaring into eternity.

The comm flicked on next to Nicole. "UNIDENTIFIED HOVER UNIT. WE ARE UNABLE TO CONFIRM YOUR IDENTITY. STATE YOUR SERIAL NUMBER. OVER."

Nicole pressed the 'talk' button and spoke back, with the voice of a SWATbot. "THIS IS HOVER UNIT SERIAL 2356-694. I HAVE SUSTAINED DAMAGE TO PRIMARY WEAPON SYSTEMS. REQUEST ENTRANCE TO HANGAR BAY TO ENGAGE IN REPAIRS. OVER."

There was a short pause. "SERIAL NUMBER IS VERIFIED. REQUEST GRANTED. OVER AND OUT."

Knuckles gave a wiry smirk. "Clever girl, Nicole."

"She's not a girl," Sonic corrected him. Knuckles didn't respond.

It was ironic and amusing to Sonic, that they were in the middle of the maelstrom of Robotnik's power, and yet were being allowed to simply pass through it without resistance. Nicole smoothly guided the Hover Unit into through the battlecruiser's open hangar doors. Aside from one other jet in the corner with a welding torch being put to it, the hangar was empty. Nicole set the craft down near one of the hangar's interior doors, and disengaged the engine.

A SWATbot made its way to the Hover Unit's door to greet its pilot, but it was instead met with the sharp barbs of Knuckles' namesakes. In two swift punches, he pummeled the bot's head to a wiry, sparking mess, dangling off the edge of its shoulders. He caught the robot's limp body as it fell, and dragged it back inside the Hover Unit. For the moment, it was best to avoid attracting attention.

They hopped out of the vehicle one by one, and exited through the airlock door that was nearby. Sonic was surprised to witness that the walls were constructed of concrete – not the cold metal he was expecting.

"Yo," he noted. "Weird choice of building materials for an airship."

"This part of the ship has been lifted out of Robotnik's central headquarters in Robotropolis. It seems that the entire complex has been part of this vessel all along."

"Say what?" Sonic turned to her. "You mean a chunk of that place just lifted out of the ground? Hah… man, I thought this place looked familiar!"

"So I assume that means you know where we're going?" Knuckles asked, his voice devoid of tone.

"Not yet." Sonic answered, then pointed at Nicole with his thumb. "But she does."

Nicole cocked her head to one side. "Word."

They crept through the dark corridors carefully, and Knuckles was beginning to note that the dark concrete corridors were actually beginning to give way to pristine metal plating. He gathered that would mean they were getting closer. He was expecting some intense resistance, but aside from the odd SWATbot running back and forth, there wasn't much of an army aboard this ship. He figured most non-essential forces had been directed to supplement the ground assault.

The few they did see getting around, they chose to just avoid. It was a simpler matter staying behind cover and waiting for them to leave, than to stir up a hornets' nest with the clamor of combat.

Sonic began to get faster with his strides. "I know these halls now. We're right on top of 'im. Pick up the pace, guys, or I'll just start running."

Then, they were there. The green metal plating was so familiar to him now that it felt like he was coming home. There sat Robotnik's throne in the middle.

And staring up against an array of consoles, was Robotnik. Two bots were guarding him, but Nicole and Griff raised their weapons before they could even move. In a few quick blasts, there was nothing left of them.

Robotnik turned, his tattered cape flowing behind him. "No."

Sonic grinned darkly. "Oh, yes… 'Buttnik."

Griff was taken aback when he saw the features of the portly dictator. His face, like his entire body now, was a grey slate. The only colour present was the angry red that burned in his eyes. "He's roboticized himself…!"

There was nothing left resembling facades between Robotnik and his hedgehog nemesis. Sonic's jovial bravado was gone. Robotnik's typical dark sneer was nowhere to be seen upon his metallic face. All that remained now was vengeance in both of their hearts.

"I don't know how you got in here. But you won't stop me, Hedgehog." Robotnik boomed.

"You're only standing there now because I had an excuse to let you live before!" Sonic shouted back, striding toward him. "But now… now, it looks like you're plenty dead already."

Sonic cracked his knuckles. "I'm gonna enjoy this."

Robotnik took a step forward, and flicked his wrist, sending an arc of bright blue electricity rippling over it with a crackle. "I implore you to try, rodent! You shall have no quarter from me this time."

Griff and Nicole raised their weapons again to fire, but Sonic outstretched both his arms, and gestured for them to lower them. "Stand back, you three…" he growled through clenched teeth. "This sucker's mine."

As per his request, Nicole, Knuckles and Griff backed up against the rear wall. Knuckles folded his arms, curious at how this would play out.

Sonic roared as he went into a super spin, and launched himself into the air, directly at Robotnik. His quarry simply raised an arm and lanced out with an arc of lightning, catching Sonic in mid-air. Its searing heat danced through his muscles, making him instantly go limp.

Sonic yelped as he slammed into the floor plating.

"Sonic!" Griff called out, raising his assault rifle.

Sonic was shaking uncontrollably on the floor from the sheer amount of voltage Robotnik had pumped into him. He had a power ring in his backpack, but his muscles weren't responding.

Robotnik stood over him with his arms raised above his head, an enormous ball of lightning building up between them. "This… is for Snively!" he boomed, readying himself to bring it down upon the quivering blue heap…

…when a volley of gunfire struck him in the chest, forcing him back a few steps. The ball of energy he held in his hands dissipated. "Agh…"

Nicole held her shotgun in one hand by the forestock, and pumped it. A smoking shell casing shot out and rolled across the floor.

Sonic could feel his body regaining its senses again, and he rolled to his feet. Reaching into his backpack, he seized the single power ring that lay inside.

Immediately, he felt its effects. Every muscle in his body pumped pure light, and his reflexes crackled. Time now sat in his hand like a plaything.

He began to run at Robotnik again, but the 'human' was already across the room, sending out an enormous bolt of lightning. Yet, through Sonic's eyes, the lance of electricity simply glided lazily through the air, and Sonic sidestepped it easily. He leaped up, and brought himself over the ex-human's head. He landed with both feet against the rear wall, and launched himself off of it, going into a super-spin.

He struck Robotnik directly in the back, grinding him into the floor so hard that the metal floor plating shrieked and split beneath their weight. Sonic bounded _out _of the back of Robotnik's body, still juiced-up with the effects of the power ring.

Robotnik lay prone upon the floor, his hands reaching around to feel the massive crater that now comprised his back. A single human spine lay in it, wrapped around with electrical cables and wires, connecting his preserved brain to the power source in his metallic body.

Sonic stepped out in front of Robotnik, staring into those glowing, soulless eyes of his. Resting a foot upon the dictator's shoulder, he reached over behind Robotnik's head and grabbed hold of his exposed spinal column.

"This…" Sonic leant down near Robotnik's ear. "…is for Mobius."

He yanked the cord clear out, and tossed it aside. An explosion of yellow sparks and small bolts of lightning shot out of Robotnik's body, blasting Sonic across the room.

He hit the floor and rolled backward a few meters to a stop, panting with exhaustion.

The red glow in Robotnik's eyes faded.

Julian 'Robotnik' Kintobor, scourge of Mobius, was dead.

There was a long silence.

"Now we have to bring this cruiser down." Knuckles finally said. "Nicole, can you issue an order to tell his armies to stand down?"

"Such an order requires a specific code word," Nicole answered. "That code word, I am no longer privy to. Robotnik has changed it since his return."

She walked over to the control panel that Robotnik had been watching before, and rolled out its keyboard. She punched in a series of quick commands, and then turned to the others.

"We must get off this ship immediately."

---

"Retreat! Retreat!" someone screamed.

"Get away! They're coming!" came another cry.

The second layer of ground defense had fallen.

Ignorant of what had happened inside Robotnik's battlecruiser, the legion of robots continued. Hundreds had been destroyed. But they just kept coming, forcing the Mobians into retreat. More than two thirds of the Freedom Fighter defenses had either been killed, or simply tossed their weapons aside and run for their lives.

Bunnie was skirting over the remains of the fallen second layer wall, bullets and laser fire tracing her outline. She dived and went into a roll as she reached the crest of the pile, colliding with hard tarmac that lay at the bottom.

About twenty Mobians separated Adramalech from thousands of the enemy.

Bunnie looked up and saw a hand stretched out.

"Antoine!" she shouted over the noise, as she took it and he helped her to her feet. They quickly started moving again, diving behind cover. Robotnik's minions appeared over the pile of rubble behind them, opening fire at the remaining ground forces.

Crouched in a dug-out trench, Bunnie looked up. The sky was dark now, a thick cover of clouds hovering over their heads. They flashed bright red and orange like a strobe with the lights of battle.

Antoine ducked out and shot off a final volley of searing red plasma at the approaching stampede, then ducked down next to Bunnie. He cracked the weapon open, watching its dead energy cell pop out, then reached inside his combat webbing for a fresh one.

Bunnie grabbed him on the shoulder, and pointed up into the clouds. "Look…"

Antoine looked up. He saw the cannon named Adramalech. He saw Robotnik's battle cruiser, approaching it. Beyond that, he saw the staccato flashing on the cloud cover.

But beyond them, he spied a darker silhouette moving across, in the distance.

Angel Island.

"It's too late…" Antoine breathed. "Bunnie…"

Bunnie whipped her head around, and looked directly into his eyes. They tossed their weapons aside and embraced each other, eyes shut tight.

Somewhere up ahead, Robotnik's army was still approaching. It didn't matter. It was hopeless.

"Oh, gods…" someone next to them said, lowering his own weapon. "This is it. We're going to die."

"Wait!" another voice, a female's, came from elsewhere. "Look! It's going to fire!"

Bunnie's ears perked up at this. She and Antoine both opened their eyes and stared.

Adramalech was glowing with a blinding white light. And directly above it, floated Robotnik's battlecruiser.

Then, it fired.

Bunnie looked away from the display, but Antoine stared. He could feel the brightness, the heat, the sheer immensity of the discharge burning right through his retinas. The sky, the rock walls of the canyon, everything, was bathed in the amazing light. It was like staring into a supernova.

The mammoth battlecruiser Robotnik had taken into battle, as well as the entire fleet escorting it, simply disintegrated before the might of the blast.

Bunnie opened her eyes again, to see the barrel of a SWATbots rifle pointed squarely at her face. Taken by surprise, she squinted and waited for death.

But it didn't come.

It only took her a second to look around and see that every one of Robotnik's minions had, in that second, ceased to function. Until a few moments ago, that legion had threatened to crush them. Now, it was nothing more than a mass of metallic statues.

The pulse from Adramalech shot through the air with a deafening sound, and struck at Angel Island. The explosion was so immense that all the cloud cover that had blanketed the sky was simply blown away, revealing the stars. They all basked with a faint green glow.

In the distance, they watched Angel Island as it was completely obliterated. Whatever residual energy the Master Emerald had left in the island was released now. In an enormous neon shockwave it spread out across the sky, so large it was clearly visible to the naked eye where it reached the edge of the planet's atmosphere.

Then, the sound wave hit; Antoine and Bunnie simultaneously covered their ears and shut their eyes as the shockwave whipped through the entirety of the vicinity, lasting for a good few minutes before the rumbling subsided. Chunks of rock from the outer rims of the canyon came loose, and shattered upon the ground.

And then, there was silence.

Bunnie took one last look to the sky and saw the ethereal green glow of the remnants of Angel Island forking apart, like a Roman candle.

It was, without doubt, the most effortlessly beautiful thing she had ever seen in her life.

She climbed out of the trench, and stood above all the others, surveyed the area.

She cupped her hands around her mouth, and bellowed, "GET TO COVER!"

No time was wasted, now. Everyone left alive either ran or were carried toward the cannon. The deep canyon around them would make for decent enough cover in itself, but they stood a far better chance underground.

---

Miles away, nestled in amongst the remnants of a few shattered trees, sat the smoking carcass of one of Robotnik's Hover Units.

For many moments, there appeared to be no signs of movement. But soon, the hatch on the craft began to shift.

_Bang! Bang! Bang!_

The hatch was finally busted clean off of its hinges, and out of it, clambered a dazed, red echidna. Following him, was Sonic and Nicole. They turned around and helped to lift an injured Griff out, and stumbled around for a few moments before collapsing in the long grass.

Sonic stared blankly at the sky, which now glowered a pale green. Tiny glowing specks flickered about, but he knew they were in reality, massive chunks of Angel Island's fallout, burning green with the Master Emerald's residual energy. Soon, they'd be striking the planet's surface, raining down even more devastation.

Griff looked down from his bleeding leg and up at the sky as well. He was nursing a wound he'd suffered on their hard landing. The fallout of the cannon's firing had sent the Hover Unit spiraling out of control, but Nicole had managed to direct it into some forest area for a comparatively soft landing.

All was quiet around them, except for the soft caress of wind, and the distant sound of flowing water.

"We need to find cover." Knuckles noted. "We won't have long until what's left of that island is crashing down around us."

"Robotnik's Empire is destroyed…" Griff breathed quietly, slurring his words a little. "Is it really all over? Just like that?"

Knuckles shut his eyes, and saw the vision of a despicable, laughing face. He looked at Sonic, and he knew that the hedgehog was thinking the same thing.

"No." Sonic finally answered. "Not yet."

---

After the time he'd spent here, Tails felt more at home in his Sanctuary quarters than he remembered feeling in his hut back in Knothole. He remembered just what it looked like; the quaint, plain single bed that he had, the bookshelves lined with stories that Sally used to read to him… the window with a perfect view of the forest. The moon always shone through it when he was going to bed.

Now, his space was a study of sorts. A desk sat full of notes he'd taken. A combat dummy sat in one corner. His bookcase was now full of ancient texts on magic, philosophy, history, instead of bedtime stories.

Looking back now, it seemed like an eternity ago that he'd been playing dirt hockey in the streets of Knothole, longing for the day he'd be announced a Freedom Fighter. Looking down at himself, he didn't recognize that little kit anymore. His growth had been startling to his teachers here, but though he didn't say it, it had been a most tumultuous experience for himself, also. As he'd been growing so rapidly, and he'd been taught more of this world by Christof and Marr, it dawned on him more with each passing day, that within him was growing a great responsibility. He'd seen the look of determination on Sonic's face as they'd been out on missions, and now he finally understood the driving feeling that brought forth that look in his eyes.

But now, he was convinced that in his own ways, his power surpassed that even of the hero of Knothole. And with that, an even larger responsibility lurked within.

He'd done well in embracing his new abilities, but all the while, he realized he missed the old days. He knew he'd not return to the same Knothole that he'd left. Would he be able to look Sally in the eyes now, and call her 'Aunt', now that he more than likely stood at more than eye level with her?

He wouldn't be playing dirt hockey or hearing bedtime stories again. He wouldn't be scarfing chili-dogs and talking about how many flights it'd take to clear the Great Forest with Sonic. The only occasion that it became possible for him to hold his innocence like a weight in his hand, was the very time that it had lost its form and slipped through his fingers.

Tails heaved a long sigh, and sat down on his bed. He felt a tear rolling down one cheek.

Then, came a soft rapping at his door. Quickly, he wiped the rogue trickle upon his cheek aside, and sniffed. "Come in."

The door creaked open slowly, and Marr the librarian stepped through, clad in a nightgown. "Good evening, Miles."

"Marr," Tails smiled. "It's late. What are you doing up?"

"I was going to ask you the same question," she said back. "I had stepped outside for some air, and saw the light under your door as I was heading back. Burning the midnight oil, I see…"

"Mm..."

"You should rest, dear. You have much to do in the morrow."

"Has Christof made a decision regarding my request?"

"Miles…" Marr said quietly, taking a seat upon the stool at Tails' desk. "You must understand that what you are asking is something that has not been done for a great many ages. The Brotherhood has not left the bounds of Mobius North since the Great War. This an extremely large-scale decision that Christof is faced with, and sending the Brotherhood to war will not go down well with most anyone here."

Tails could hear the accent the lynx spoke with. It reminded him of the one Lupe carried, but it was more pronounced, and Marr's voice was softer, more gentle and emotional. There was something about her tone of speaking that always put him at ease, making him keen to listen to her.

"I understand," the kitsune said, staring at his feet. "I won't argue if he declines. But he has said himself what danger Naugus represents to everyone, even this far out. If he will not send anyone to assist, I will go by myself."

"Listen to me," Marr started. "As I was outside before, I spotted an immense green glow in the sky to the south. Something large is going on down at your home."

"Hm?" Tails turned his head to look at her. It was then, that she saw it.

"You have been crying…" she whispered. "Why?"

Tails sighed. "Not really crying. Just reminiscing, is all."

"Oh…" Marr breathed, standing up to walk over to him. She took his face in her hands, and stared deep. He could see the faint gloss in Marr's own eyes that glistened, flickering between plain brown and a shade of emerald green. She'd expected him to pull away from her touch in discomfort, but he didn't.

"Miles…" she said, a little uneasily. "Have I ever mentioned to you, that you have a precious set of eyes?"

Tails didn't respond.

"I know you miss the life you led before your coming here. I have never seen someone here, not even Christof, to share the immense power that you possess now. You are strong in ways that you could never have imagined before now… and yet, in the brightness of your eyes, the rose of your cheeks… there is a swirl of innocence…"

She caught herself mid-sentence and shook her head, as if in disagreement with herself. "Don't listen to me, Miles. I am blabbering like a lunatic… I should leave you to rest..."

But as she turned to leave, Tails gently took hold of her wrist. "Marr…"

"What is it?" The lynx turned to him, eyes wide.

"Don't go yet…" As soon as he saw her face, Tails folded his ears back, going red like a tomato. "Could… could you talk to me some more? Please?"

She studied the fox's features intently for a second, and slowly crept over to sit next to him. "Miles…"

Tails laughed a little. "You _can_ call me Tails, you know."

"Nay…" She smiled. "I prefer to address you as Miles. I think it's a wonderful name."

Tails' face reddened even further at this, and he looked away. "Thank you…"

Marr looked at him carefully for a moment, and sighed. "I do not think it would be wise for me to continue speaking to you about... what I had thought to…"

"Marr…" Tails looked down, noting how even the sound of his own voice was now so foreign to him. "You mentioned innocence… I was thinking exactly that. I… I somehow know I'll miss it. It's going to disappear. I know things won't be the same now. The king's letter has given me some idea on what I have to do now, and I know it will be hard. And…"

Marr craned her head around to catch his gaze. "And…?"

"I don't want to do it. I don't want this responsibility…" Finally, he couldn't hold it anymore. He let out a sob.

"Please, it is alright…" she whispered.

Tails looked up at her, eyes shining like water. "What?"

"My dear Miles…" Marr frowned deeply, and caught the kitsune in a brief, but heartfelt hug. "Perhaps it is wrong of me to mention this. You have grown and changed so much in this short space of time. It is only natural for you to feel overwhelmed…

"But… you must believe me, Miles. Your reluctance is serenity to my ears. In the short time I have been tutoring you, I have witnessed the power rising up within you… and yet, I still see the purity in your eyes that I was all but certain would be consumed by such power. And with that sight, a hopeless, desperate affection for you has grown within my heart..."

"I..." Tails fell silent, speechless.

Marr continued. "You are rare in ways in which many would not even contemplate… and I have nothing but absolute faith in your ability to rise to whatever challenges await."

"To have faith is one thing…" Tails sighed. "But I still do not _know. _I don't know what's going to happen to all of us. And yet it somehow could all rest on me…"

"The future is uncertain…" the lynx replied. "But not as much so as you might imagine. Are our lives a spiral that we're set to ride through to the end, without a hope of controlling its direction? Nay. Though certain knowledge will see you through without mishap, where knowledge is not present, you must have _faith _to become your stepping stone. Faith in the way of things, faith in yourself. Do not fret for the future, Miles… not when you have the power to change it."

"I guess…"

"The law of attraction. Like attracts like… think, and be convinced it will be that way, and so it shall be. Thoughts become things…"

She realized now, that she herself was crying, and put an arm around him. "Can you promise me something, Miles?"

Tails moved closer to her, voice scarcely above a whisper. "Of course…"

She met his longing gaze with her own, resting a trembling hand upon his cheek. She could feel the warmth of his blood rushing through it. "Whatever happens, do not let that rose in your fair cheeks wither, or allow that warm gaze to become cold... it would break my heart…"

"I won't…" Tails found his face hovering so close to hers that he could feel her faint breath upon it. "I promise."

He closed his eyes...

And then, an unearthly rumble came from outside the room, shaking the Sanctuary to its foundations.

Tails opened his eyes and pulled away, vision darting from corner to corner. "What was that?"

"Oh, no…" the lynx gasped, shutting her eyes. "It's him…"

Tails rose to his feet and headed for the door. "Wait in here."

He stepped out into the great hall, which was now rife with activity, Brotherhood members stepping wearily out of their own quarters to see what the noise was.

At the end of the hall, was now a massive hole in the roof, the pale moonlight shining through it. Wreckage covered the floor around the point of impact, burning quietly with blue flame.

And in the middle of the mess, stood a ten-foot tall, winged monstrosity. At first, Tails didn't recognize them. But then he noticed the creature's claw arm. The thing began to stride down the hall towards him, each of his footprints leaving craters in the polished floor encrusted with crystal. Out of his claw hand, a great bunch of tentacle-like snakes emerged, hissing and snapping.

"Naugus…" Tails said to himself.

The monster heard him. "Hasn't my name just been on everyone's lips lately?" he growled with a grin, his voice vibrating through the floor beneath Tails' feet. "You…" he pointed at Tails. "Show me the way to your leader here. It's been a while since my last visit here."

"I am he!" Tails turned around and saw Christof behind him. "What are you doing coming back here, Naugus?"

"Christof?" Naugus chortled. "So, it was you that ended up dragging his sorry carcass to the top of the pile? I cannot say I'm surprised. You always were the old master's favourite. And to answer your question… I was never quite happy with the way Lazar and myself were discharged from this place. I think it's fitting that on my way to taking control of Mobius, this pathetic little order should be crushed first…"

Someone ran from the side of the hall, conjuring a fireball up in his hand. "You'll do no such thing!"

Naugus simply waved his hand out, and in a flash, a dozen sharp spears of crystal had impaled the Mobian to the wall. With a 'hmph', the sorcerer simply continued his stride.

"You'd be wise to leave this place now. You have no place here." Christof shouted. "Tails, get to cover!"

Naugus turned to the fox. "Tails?" He crouched a little, to get a better look at him. "Oh, my! If it isn't the little foxboy from Knothole. You've grown. But you are still a long way from home, little boy!"

Tails looked back at Christof. The goat was folding his hands together, conjuring up what appeared to be a ball of lightning in his hand.

He opened his palms, and lashed out in a backwards-slashing motion. And from it, an immense, powerful blast of electrical energy went hurtling from them. It shot back and forth from the floor to the ceiling as it moved, shattering everything it touched.

It struck Naugus directly, enveloping his body in a savage electrical storm. He recoiled and howled from the blast, as the ethereal bolts mauled at his flesh like a thousand rabid dogs. The beast let out a final growl, and slammed hard into the ground.

Tails let a moment of heavy silence pass before running over to the collapsed Christof. He'd brought the wayward sorcerer down, but at the expense of all of his strength.

"Master," he gasped, helping the goat to his feet, draping an arm over his shoulder. "Are you alright?"

Christof barely managed a nod, but was still staring down the hall. Tails caught Christof's stare, and turned his attention.

Naugus' bloated, steaming corpse was rising again. Each of his wounds were covered in crags of crystal, and then when those crags fell away, they left newly regenerated flesh.

"I felt that!" he roared. "No more games. Time to die."

He outstretched his hand.

Tails realized what was about to happen a second before it did. "Everyone find cover!"

It was too late.

Naugus swept his hand out, jagged spikes of crystal shooting everywhere. Within a second, the entire room was riddled with them. Anyone who'd not ducked back into their rooms at that moment was simply ripped to shreds before the onslaught.

But Tails and Christof remained.

As he'd seen the volley of stone approaching him, Tails had summoned a shield in that split second. In a spray of spark and flame, the projectiles were deflected, and the shield shattered into nothingness.

Naugus stood there watching for a moment, surveying the bedlam he'd caused. He let out a mocking cackle that shook the walls. "Are we having FUN, YET?"

Tails braced himself, digging his heels into the ground.

"That was quite clever of you, foxboy." Naugus grinned. "It's refreshing to see this place isn't still a _total _cesspool of incompetence. But I think it's time I told you something…"

The kitsune didn't respond, still holding Christof upright.

"Your beloved princess is dead. I killed her."

Tails shook his head in response. "Lies!"

"Don't believe me?" Naugus laughed. "You're right… I didn't _just kill_ her. I drained her blood, consumed her soul… defiled her in every way you can imagine…" He held his tentacle-ridden claw above his head, and summoned forth an image:

Sally's body appeared above, dangling from invisible strings. Her face was contorted in agony, a gaping hole in her stomach.

"Her soul… is mine!" Naugus boomed, as the image subsided. "And so too, shall be all of yours!"

Anguish weighed in upon Tails' heart, threatening to shatter his resolve into a thousand pieces. But he shook his head free of thoughts, and spoke one word.

"No."

"You're sorely mistaken if you think you have any choice in this matter, little boy."

But Tails wasn't listening. He'd closed his eyes, and summoned forth a sense that greeted him with an entirely different vision.

In the blackness of his mind's eye, he saw the glowing red aura of Naugus' being. His bodiless form zeroed in on the shape, and leapt into it. He was greeted with frenetic flashes of agonized faces, a crescendo of tortured screams. They rushed around like endless rapids, kicking up splashes. And then, Tails found what he was looking for.

A vision directly from Naugus' mind greeted his own: It was a chamber of icy stone, the walls lined with throbbing blue veins. They snaked along the floor, and met at a central point.

A pitch-black, throbbing heart.

Tails snapped his mind back to the present, recoiling from the images he'd been assailed with. He let out a frightening scream as it all sank in, losing his footing. He collapsed to the floor in a heap, fingers wrapped around his temples.

Naugus lifted an eyebrow. "Huh?"

Christof knelt at the kitsune's prone, quivering body. "Tails!"

"You…" Naugus let out a malevolent growl. "I know what you just did. But none of you will stop me."

His gargantuan wings flexed out, and he leapt into the air. Flapping them quickly, he ascended through the hole in the ceiling, and then he was gone.

In Naugus' absence, the pain that had seized Tails' mind began to subside. He slowly opened his eyes, the red that had clouded his vision a moment ago fading with each second.

"What happened, Tails?" Christof asked, helping him to his feet.

"I…" Tails looked back with a set of wide eyes. "I found his heart…"

The Master raised a brow. "What?"

"There's no time. I have to get back to Knothole as soon as possible. Take whoever is still here, and get out. Naugus will come back."

Christof looked reluctant, but sighed. "As you wish. But know that you are going alone. I can spare none here. Not now. And you're in no condition to be taking that thing on directly. He's too powerful now…"

"What you just tried tonight…" Tails smirked. "…was not taking him on directly."

"Hm…" the Brotherhood leader pondered aloud, scowling. "It seems you have a better grasp of this situation than anyone else ever will. Do as you must. Take whatever you need, and be on your way."

Tails nodded, and turned for the door to his quarters, which now was barely hanging off of its hinges.

"And Tails?" Christof spoke after him.

The fox turned around. "Yes?"

Christof smiled. "I'm proud of you."

Tails said not another word. He ducked into his quarters, where Marr was still waiting. She wrapped her arms around him as soon as he entered, kissing him on the cheek. "Miles! Are you ok? I wanted to run out after you…"

"I'm glad you didn't," Tails whispered, giving a slight squeeze. "You would've been killed. Listen, take whatever you can and see Christof. I don't know when Naugus will return and you all need to get out of here, now."

Marr frowned. "You are leaving now, aren't you?"

"Yes…" Tails went to pull out of Marr's embrace so that he could begin gathering his things, but he pulled back and saw the look on her face. His own features softened. "I'm sorry, Marr…"

"Hush…" she breathed. "We both know what must be done. But will you not even wait out this night? Please?"

The fox grimaced. "I can't stay here, knowing that I need to be somewhere else…" He looked at her. "Do you understand?"

Marr sighed deeply, and let go of him. "I understand. Miles…"

"Marr…"

"I…" she looked down for a moment, and then reached into her nightgown. From it, she produced a necklace. She removed it, and reached over Tails' head to place it around his own. "I want you to keep this. For luck. And as a reminder."

"A reminder?"

Marr blushed. "Mhm..."

Tails took the pendant in his hand, and stared at it. It was a small piece of metal, in the shape of a butterfly. He looked back up at Marr.

"You will come back, won't you?" the lynx sighed, looking away.

There was no response from the kitsune. He couldn't answer her, not knowingly.

Marr stepped forward and took the pendant hanging from Tails' neck in her hands, and clutched it to her heart. "Won't you?"

Tails finally sighed, and touched a hand to her cheek with a sincere smile. "For you… I will."

Her face lit up, and she held onto him tightly. A certain few other words threatened to spill forth from her lips, but she kept them pursed.

Finally, she pulled out of his hold, and turned for the door. She didn't dare look back, for she knew that if she did, she would never be able to leave.

Tails looked on silently as she went. He saw her convulsing at the scene outside, but she still didn't turn back.

Her aroma clung to his clothes. He could feel the pendant she'd given him against his chest, still warm from her grasp. He found himself wanting to leap out after her, pick her up in his arms and cover her eyes from it all...

He wanted so many things. He wanted this to all be over. He wanted to know that Sally wasn't really gone, though he knew Naugus had spoken the truth. But he couldn't dwell on it. He'd have plenty of time for grief on his trek back home.

He turned around, picked up his old backpack and began gathering his things.


	9. Crystal Mountain

**EPISODE 8 - CRYSTAL MOUNTAIN**

They had lasted through Armageddon.

In the darkness of Adramalalech's cargo holds, they had all listened as Angel Island's shattered remnants struck the planets surface. Each one sounded like a nuclear bomb going off, causing tremors that violently rocked the land to its core.

They'd made it through the worst of it, but were remaining underground to be safe. The cannon itself had been destroyed in the fallout, and with it, all power had been lost days ago. The cargo hold had turned into a shanty town of shipping containers, the darkness kept at bay from the dim glow of a few flaming drums.

Bunnie was huddled next to one of the barrels, clutching a blanket to her chest. She could see Rotor across from her, holding some nondescript circuit board up to the flames light.

"Rote," she said, quietly.

He looked up, giving her his full attention. "What is it, Bunnie?"

"Whatcha doin'?"

The walrus smirked a bit, and shook his head. "Nothing, really. I can't do anything with this board. I was just looking for… distraction, I guess." He took the panel, tossed it into the fire. It sparkled a little in the blaze, as whatever flammable components or coating it contained ignited.

"Any word from Sonic? Nicole?"

"The radio I brought down here's working," Rotor said to her. "But I can't get a signal. We're too far underground, and whatever energy that island had in it is interfering as well. I don't know what happened to them… I hope they're alright."

A loud rumble echoed through the space, making some bits of loose cement come raining out of the darkness above.

"More fallout?" Rotor pondered aloud, looking about the cavern.

"The way outta here got caved in from some of the explosions," Bunnie explained. "Folks are tryin' to blast us out of here."

"Oh…" Rotor looked at his feet. "I wonder… even if Robotnik's not alive now, is there even going to be anything left up there?"

"Only one way to find out, I guess…" Bunnie smirked. "No matter what's left up there, we've still got a home left to rebuild. That's gotta mean somethin', right?"

Rotor finally looked up at her, and smiled. "Yeah. I guess that'll be a bit more enjoyable than ruining it was."

Another explosion. Rotor got to his feet to have a look toward the cavern's entrance.

"We're through!" he heard someone shout. There was a thin shaft of pale white filtering through the cracks.

Doubling back, Rotor picked up his radio, and began running over to them.

--

Tails stood in the doorway of the hut that hid the entrance to the Brotherhood Sanctuary, looking out to the snow-covered expanse that lay before him. The sun was rising ahead, reflecting off the snow in a blaze of orange that made him squint.

Things had taken a lot longer to get ready than he'd expected; whatever that fallout was in the distance, he'd had to wait it out before he set off. But now, things had finally cleared, and the eerie green glow in the sky had been mostly extinguished.

He hefted his backpack to his shoulder, and checked over his gear one more time; he'd swapped his rather limiting robe for a tight-fitting hard leather armor, again colored jet-black aside from the Brotherhood's red branding upon the breast. He'd cut a hole out of the pants to allow his three tails to feed through and move freely, though he was still unhappy with the lack of mobility the outfit gave him as a whole. He figured it'd loosen up a little more with use.

With a final sigh, he took his first step out of the door, and the wave of cold hit him hard upon his exposed face and forearms. He'd considered turning back inside, to say his last goodbyes to the few friends he'd made here, but there was no time to lose anymore.

As it turned out, he didn't have to anyway.

"Miles…" he felt the touch upon his shoulder, and already knew who it was before he turned around. "I want to come with you."

"Why, Marr?" He asked her, turning to look into her eyes. She'd outfitted herself in much the same sort of gear. "You're safer with the Brotherhood. Christof needs you."

The lynx shook her head, grimaced. "Christof, the entire brotherhood, should be coming with us. I've never known him to make a wrong call in his time as leader here, but… this is more important than anything to do with us here. If you fail, we're next, there's no doubt about it. We are struggling, but you still need all the help you can get."

Tails' ears folded back. "But… if something were to happen…" He turned away.

Marr stared back at him. Something had lit up in her soul. "If something were to happen…?"

"To you. I'd never forgive myself."

"Please, this is important…" she told him. "All of my life, I've been searching, or waiting, for something resembling purpose to my life… a chance to change things, to do something special. In you… in your - our - cause, I believe I have found it… do you understand?"

Tails asked himself why he was so worried about her. Asked as if he didn't know the answer. But he knew.

Without another word, he took Marr gently and scooped her up in his arms. He'd seen Sonic do this so many times, and suddenly it felt like he was literally filling the hero's shoes. "Hang on tight."

--

While they traveled, they talked about everything. Marr recounted her youth when she'd played hide-and-seek in the walls of Trema, her home city, before it had been laid to waste in the Great War. Tails remembered only months ago, when he'd been running around in Knothole, playing dirt hockey with whomever had been willing. It had struck Tails before, that he'd never known anyone he shared so much in common with.

"My parents told me that when I grew up, I would change the world…" Marr sighed. Tails had slowed his flying to a brisk, smooth jog, so that the wind would not be such an imposing force upon their conversation. He could feel her body within his arms, snuggling towards his chest, and felt his own heart pounding against it.

"Where are your folks, now?" Tails asked her.

"The War…" she said, simply.

Tails slowed noticeably at this, and looked down at her. "I'm so sorry…"

"It wasn't your fault. And I feel you haven't had things any easier…"

Tails looked out to the distant hills and began to pick his pace up again. "I don't remember much of my family. We lived alone in the Great Forest. We weren't like most of the Mobian families where we had any sort of contact with anyone else. We fended for ourselves, grew our own food. One day, they had all gone to hunt. They never came back."

"Now it's me, that's sorry..."

"And it wasn't your fault, either." Tails smiled. "After I went out looking for them, I got lost in the woods. I thought I'd die… but then Sonic found me. He took me back to Knothole, taught me everything… I have him to thank for being alive now. I hope he's alright…"

"Do you know where he might be?"

"We'll try for Knothole first," Tails said to her. "You'll be the first visitor that place has seen in quite some time."

--

Night fell.

As determined as Tails was to simply go as hard and long as it took to reach Sonic and the others, his body had finally told him of its disapproval with his aspirations. He was growing fatigued, and finally slowed down. The weight of taking Marr with him was taking its toll on his stamina as well, though she was not heavy by any means.

The plain, desert mountains of the Great Unknown had finally begun to give way to the grassy plains of Mobius south. A grand lake lay up ahead, which Tails had remembered passing when he had been on the way past with Sonic before. They were still hundreds of miles away from their destination, but were finally most of the way.

"You're tired…" Marr spoke to him.

"There's not far left, now… I can make it."

Marr shook her head. "We will have an easier time traveling in the morning. We will need all of our strength tomorrow…"

"I…" Tails sighed. "You're right… okay. I'll try for that house over there."

"House?" Marr looked away from him, and squinted her eyes against the wind. In the near distance, she could indeed see an old cobblestone construct, perched on the slope looking out toward the lake. Obviously, it was long-since abandoned; the roof was missing, the walls crumbled and eroded by the ages. All the same, it looked somehow more inviting than trying to sleep out in the open.

When they finally got near, Tails slowed to a stop, and lowered Marr to the ground. She surprised herself when she stumbled as she walked, noting the numbness she felt in her legs.

"You okay?" Tails laughed, watching her.

She scowled at him for a moment, but a moment's beholding of his face turned her expression back to a smile. "Yes… I am okay. I am not used to having traveled so far without the use of my legs before."

Aside one of the mossy walls of the old house, she sat down cross-legged and watched the moonlight's play upon the calm lake waters, gently running her fingers among the untamed grass. "Wow…"

"Mm?" Tails looked out to the lake, then down at her, her light grey fur tinged with the pale blue of night.

The lynx laid herself back in the grass and drew in a long breath, gazing up at the stars. "I have never been out this far south before. The countryside here is beautiful, and the weather…"

"It's great, isn't it?" Tails smiled, sitting himself down beside her. "I love the landscape here. I couldn't imagine living anywhere else."

"Couldn't you?" Marr turned to him.

Tails caught her gaze, and regretted his words. "Well… maybe…"

She laughed out loudly, warmly. "It's alright, don't worry. I was joking."

"Oh…" the kitsune stared upon his lap, deep in thought. After a while, he got up, and strolled over to the waters edge. He reached into his backpack, and scooped a few fruit seeds out of his pouch, and touched them over with a few drops of green water. The beginnings of a plant burst forth through the sands, and from them, leaves sprouted. Within a minute, a selection of fruits had grown from the tree.

He picked one, and turned around to face Marr, who had begun walking over. "Hungry?"

She gingerly took it from his hand, and took a bite. "Thank you."

For a few moments, they stood silent together, watching the ebb and flow of the water, slowly taking in the sights and senses.

"You know…" Marr said out of nowhere, "When I was little… I liked to play hockey as well. Though we have ice instead, as you know. No one ever was around to play with me, either."

Tails chuckled. "It seems we've shared a lot of things together, without even knowing each other."

"We know each other now… we share memories. In that respect, I think we have known each other for longer than you think."

"Mm…" Tails went back to the grass, and sat down. He watched Marr sit beside him. "Heh. Maybe when this is over, we'll have a few games together."

The lynx laughed, and he could see her blush even in the dim light. "I would like that… I would like that a lot."

Tails smiled faintly, and then turned his gaze back to the lake. He took a long, deep sigh, and closed his eyes.

"What's wrong?" Marr asked him.

"Right now, I'm not sure if it's really anything wrong…" he said to her. "I feel strange…"

She rested a hand upon his arm. "Tell me what you feel…"

"I…" Tails began, feeling his heart beating harder and faster. "I can't describe. Something I've felt now for a while with you… like a maelstrom of thoughts that I couldn't place. But now, it feels like everything is coming together…" He suddenly felt dizzy. "Like something has grown inside me, some sort of serenity…"

Like the gentle waving of the lakes water, silence seemed to gently swirl around them both, carried by the warm caress of the wind.

"Miles…" Marr finally spoke.

Tails turned to her slowly. "Marr…"

She said nothing more to him. Instead, she slowly took a gentle hold of his hand. Tails slowly lifted it up to stroke her face, and realised it was trembling.

"We should sleep..." Marr whispered. Tails simply nodded, and smiled, laying her down on her back and wrapping his arms and one of his bushy tails around her.

Before they both finally fell asleep, Tails whispered, "Is everything alright?"

Marr pressed her back against his chest, and smiled contentedly to herself. "For tonight, everything is perfect."

--

It was still dark when Knuckles opened his eyes. There was the faint, ghostly streak of hazy orange and blue on the horizon, that indicated to him dawn had arrived, despite the darkness. He rolled over painfully on his side, swiping a hand out in front of him to shift the pair of skulls he'd set beside him out of the way. Sometimes he'd just stare into the empty crevices where their eyes had once been – imagined the way they'd looked at him so proudly as he was still a young echidna.

He wondered if they'd be proud of him now, after all that had happened. He had been the guardian of their ancestral home. And he'd failed to protect it. He'd struck deals with their worst enemies. He'd assisted in taking what was left of his race's history and blasting it into oblivion, the last traces of his bloodline existing only in his own body. He'd mingled with and subsequently betrayed the Mobians on the planet's surface, something that no other echidna had ever done.

No, they would not be proud... they wouldn't be proud at all.

He was strong, capable, determined. Yet, he would still have been a failure in their eyes.

He sat up slowly, feeling his arms and back crackling, discs sliding violently back into place. The impact of the crash yesterday hadn't inflicted any of them with injuries that would last more than a day or two, thankfully, but that didn't mean he wasn't hurting.

The sun was blooming slowly forth from the distant treeline, the shadows of the earth slowly curling back unto the figures that sheltered them.

He wondered if Naugus was somewhere near, watching as the sun rose. He wanted it to be his last. Today was the day Naugus the sorcerer would pay for everything he'd done.

The echidna's mind slipped back to thoughts of his family, and his society. The painful reminder that he'd not only failed them, but utterly disgraced them. But it didn't hurt him, at least, not much anymore. And it was only now that he realized why.

He was the last of his race, and he was lucky to even be alive at all. There was no future for his kind. He'd spent his life protecting his empty, desolate island. He'd spent his life protecting memories, singed and broken traces of the past. But among the surface-dwellers of Mobius, he'd found... the future. And the future, he decided, was a far more worthy thing to fight for.

With that thought, the image of Lupe at his side suddenly popped into his head, puzzling him at how that had happened. He shook his head free of the thought, albeit a little reluctantly.

He looked about himself, and saw Nicole was already awake, speaking quietly to herself as she sat upright. She'd surprised him when she said that she needed to sleep; it hadn't quite clicked in his head yet that she wasn't quite a robot. Apparently, androids needed sleep to recharge just as any living creature.

"Who are you talking to?" he said to her, not bothering to conceal his smirk.

She looked at him flatly. "At 05:37, I was able to reestablish contact with the remaining Mobians at Adramalech."

"Oh." the echidna scratched the back of his neck. He should've known Nicole wouldn't have it in her to do something so... organic, as talking to herself. "So how'd they fare?"

"There was a high number of casualties." Nicole said to him, not moving a synthetic muscle. "An even greater number are wounded. Contact with them had been unavailable previously, as a cave-in had insulated them from radio transmissions. I recommend we leave immediately to regroup with them."

"Okay..." He looked around, and saw Griff still fast asleep, slumped up against the cavern's back wall. "Where's Sonic?"

"He left earlier." Nicole told him.

Knuckles looked at the android incredulously. "What?"

"He left ea--" Nicole began to repeat, but Knuckles cut her off.

"I heard you the first time. What do you mean, he left? Where did he go?"

Nicole didn't answer him directly, but played back something she'd recorded; Sonic's voice came from her lips. "Outta my way, Nicole. I'm taking that sucker out right now, even if it means I'm going by myself. If you try to stop me, I'll flatten you._ Inteleg?_"

Knuckles let out a growl loud enough to wake Griff up. "That idiot!" he groaned, dragging his fingers over his face. "That kid's stupidity will be the death of all of us. And how on Mobius does he know where to find Naugus, anyway?"

Nicole stepped outside the mouth of the cave, and pointed. Knuckles followed, and looked.

In the distance, was a shimmering blue shape cut out against the hazy morning sky, a foreboding mass of dark crystal stabbing out to the sky with its sharp crags. A swirling mass of storm clouds formed a crown to the whole twisted image, striking down at the ground with serpentine shafts of lightning.

"Uh... guys?" Griff started, raising to his feet. "What's going on?"

Knuckles and Nicole both ignored him.

--

Sonic had spent the last few hours traversing the ravaged landscape as best as he could manage. His path would lead him back through the Great Forest, and out the other side -- a familiar path to him -- but it was proving a little more confusing than he'd first imagined. The destruction caused by the fallout from Angel Island had scarred the countryside with a thousand pockmarks, each one a giant, smoking, radioactive crater. Parts of the hills around him still glowed green with the residue of the Island's power, and he could feel his strength being sapped whenever he approached near one.

But finally, the wilderness around him began to grow thicker, and he was soon within the dense foliage of the Great Forest. Rock and leaves rushed past at each side, and he was forced to slow down here as the remains of fallen trees, destroyed by the previous day's chaos, threatened to end his life if he should collide with any of it at his top speed.

As he progressed through the dense woods, he began to lose his bearings, and he could feel the air getting thicker. He could feel spots of rain smacking against his face, and in the distance, he heard cacophonous booms of thunder. It seemed that nothing, not even the near-end of the world, was going to hold the weather at bay.

Suddenly, the dense shroud of canopy above him gave way to grey skies and pouring rain. He was alone, in the middle of a familiar clearing.

He took a running leap over the small creek that lay before him, and then he was walking among the remains of Knothole. If he was lucky, he'd arrive at the power ring pool to find the device at the bottom of it still functional.

He hadn't planned to stop here, but he couldn't help himself slowing to a walk. The fallout from the island had destroyed buildings and huts left and right here. The bridge over the creek was in pieces. Millions of shards of wood and clay lay strewn about the shattered village, as common as the fallen leaves.

Normally, he'd have run. Sonic never walked, never stopped, when he was by himself, in his element. But now, he stopped.

He walked past his hut, the remains of Antoine's hut. They'd both been smashed to wreckage. But beyond them, Sally's stood still. Maybe, he thought, some force beyond his comprehension had willed it to stay for him. His stomach tied itself in knots now. He stepped up to the door of her hut, gave it a gentle push and it creaked open for him.

_Why am I doing this?_ He wondered to himself. It would've been so much easier to simply pass through the village, grab the power ring and be on his way to that mountain of crystal he'd seen in the distance.

He entered the bedroom.

The place was a mess; books had spilled across the floor from the shelves, peppered with glass from the shattered windows. But apart from that, the hut had been largely untouched.

He walked around the room slowly, running his hands over the furniture. Her bed was still unmade from when she'd last risen from it... he could almost see her still there, in his mind's eye, curled up among the sheets like he'd seen her so many times before. Or in that wooden chair in the corner, an arm draped over the back, book in her hand...

He sat down on the bed, and lay backwards. Pulled the pillow to his chest. It still smelled of her. The whole room did. And for a moment, he believed so strongly that she was right there with him.

"Sal..." he took the pillow to his mouth, his words muffling as he spoke into it. "Are you here?"

Only the pattering of the rain outside answered him.

"Sal... Sally..." he said again. He repeated her name again and again, letting his voice get more and more strained with each. Before long, it'd been reduced to a voice alien to his own, in great, heaving sobs. He could feel the warmth of his own tears streaking his face, but he didn't care. He just let it flow.

"Sally... I miss you..."

Outside, the rain was pouring down harder still. He could feel that maelstrom in his head again, that overwhelming pounding rippling through his body that hid his rational thoughts away from him. He wished it'd go away.

He hadn't heard the door creaking open again behind him. But he felt a hand resting on his shoulder now. But it wasn't Sally's hand. It was larger, stronger.

He didn't bother turning around. If it was Naugus, or some other abomination that had found him now, he didn't care if they ended him here. Maybe it'd mean he'd see Sally again. He relaxed his body completely and prepared for a swift end, his face still buried in the princess' pillow.

"Sonic... look at me."

That voice... it sounded familiar to him. But it was different...

He turned around slowly, looked upon his shoulder. Through the blur of his own tears, he spied a black-gloved hand. Slowly, he let his gaze wander skywards.

Tails' eyes widened as he saw Sonic's face slowly revealed to him. He'd never in his life, seen Sonic cry before. After all the years that he'd looked up to the blue blur, he'd never expected to be the one looking over him one day.

"How ya doing, bro?" The fox asked, with a weak smile.

Sonic's eyes shifted away, feeling disarmed. "Hey, big guy..." He glanced cautiously at the kitsune again.

The fox towered over him now, a good deal higher than he. His torso and legs were covered in black hard leather; he didn't just look like he'd grown. He'd progressed, transformed into something far beyond what anybody had expected. Sonic could sense the strength Tails carried in his frame now, from the grip of his hand to the deep-set features of his face. But in it, he could still see those bright eyes, sparkling with the youth that he remembered. "You've grown a lot since I last saw you. Looks like I'm gonna have to start calling you something else... you're soaking."

"It's wet today."

Sonic's mouth began to quiver again. "Tails... I gotta tell you something. About Sal..."

The kitsune lowered his head, eyes closed. "I know. It's alright." He pulled the hedgehog into a tight hug, and Sonic, for the first time ever, was content to just let the tears flow.

He could hear someone else speaking, a female, but he could hear an accent in her voice. "Your princess isn't gone, my friend... not forever."

Sonic looked up again, and noticed a lynx standing there. He wondered how he hadn't spotted her before. He frowned. "What do you mean, she's not gone? Don't you know what happened to her?"

"Death isn't the end. It's a transition... she's waiting for you. You'll meet each other again, I know. I can feel it..."

Sonic scowled at her.

"Sonic, this is Marr." Tails said, when he caught the hedgehog's glare. "She's my... mentor."

Marr held her hand out to him, and the hedgehog reluctantly took it. "Sonic," he told her with a sniffle. "I'm not usually like this."

"I figured." She gave him a slither of a smile. "The happenings of late have not been kind to any of us... it's alright to cry, my friend..."

Sonic was silent for a moment, shutting his eyes tight. "I'm done. Crying ain't gonna win back the planet."

"That's a little more like you, Sonic." Tails gave him a nudge. "Now... you gonna tell me what went on here? Are the others okay?"

"They'll manage. They're holed up at that big gun I told you about."

Tails' eyebrows raised. "Adramalech? What are they doing there?"

Sonic slowly rose to his feet, and gave a sigh, clenching his fists, his eyes still closed. "I'll fill ya in on all that later. In the meantime, I got one question for you, big guy..." He opened his eyes and looked at the fox. "You still a Freedom Fighter?"

"You bet."

"Then come with me, and try to keep up. I'll give you the scoop from around here on the way. Sorry, but your lady friend's gonna have to sit this out."

"You're going to take on Naugus, with just the two of you?" Marr stared at him, then turned to Tails.

The fox grimaced. "Marr... I think we'll manage. It'll be dangerous... you'll be safe if you just wait it out here. I've got a feeling the others will be on their way here by now."

"And what am I supposed to tell them?" The Lynx scowled at him. "That the both of you are just on your way to your heroic suicide? We _all _need to go back and regroup, before we even think of taking Naugus on!"

Sonic stepped closer to her, surprised when she didn't back down. "They'd hoofing it. I'm only here now, because of these." He pointed to his sneakers, now looking a little faded from all the abuse they'd been taking lately. "To regroup with them would take _days._ We don't have days. Naugus ain't gonna wait, so neither can we."

Tails sighed. "Sonic's right..."

Marr looked away. "Fine. We'll go now."

"_We'll_ go now." Sonic told her, nodding toward Tails. "_You_ can go back and join up with the rest of the crew. Just follow my trail back. It'll be smooth sailing from here, 'Buttnik's bots are history as of yesterday."

"What...?" Marr screwed up her nose. "Miles, please, don't tell me you're entertaining this idea!"

Tails frowned. "I don't want you to get hurt..."

"Then I'm not going to get hurt." she stammered. "And neither will you. Not while I'm at your side."

Tails shook his head. "Didn't you see what Naugus did back at the Sanctuary? I might lose, yes, but I have to risk it. We're out of time. If Naugus comes back, he'll crush us. I know his weakness. And only I can take him on. Please, I don't want to lose you..."

"Miles, if you die..." Marr's bottom lip began to quiver. "Then so do I. Please... this is why I came with you. We'll do this thing... together. If we win or lose, so be it. You have to trust me..."

The kitsune stared at her for a second, and he felt his lip quivering too. Finally, he stepped forward and hugged her. "Alright... alright..." He held onto her quivering body as tightly as he could, and finally turned to Sonic, looking at him expectantly.

The hedgehog folded his arms, pondering for a moment.

He nodded slowly. "Cool."

Tails didn't say another word, but reached into his backpack, and dropped something familiar into Sonic's outstretched hand: a power ring.

--

Crystal Mountain loomed. At first, Sonic had thought it was a fortress built upon the landscape by Naugus, out of the same damnable crystal he'd seen so much of in the Void. But it was more than just built; it had _grown_ to join with the earth, like an insidious cancer creeping through the very soil beneath his feet. As they had traveled over the landscape to get closer to it, he had begun to wonder if they'd make it out of this alive after all. Somewhere, inside there, Naugus would be waiting for them. The air here thrummed with some kind of otherworldly pulsing, rippling through the air, chilling the hedgehog to his core.

He couldn't ever explain how he knew, but he could tell that chill wasn't just in his head. It was the screaming of the damned and the conquered.

But now, the mountain towered over them. The dark storm clouds overhead had gathered around it, swirling and crackling with lightning and thunderous booms. They were standing on a dirt path, one that wound its way right into the gaping maw in the mountain. All around, the rain poured down as if it'd rather see them drowned before they got close to that towering structure.

"Alright..." Sonic swallowed. "So, ol' Clawface is in there somewhere. You guys ready to punch it? We've only got one shot at this."

Tails shook his head. "That's not the plan. I've seen what he's like now. He's too powerful to take on directly. But I saw something the other day, when he attacked the Sanctuary... he's drawing his power from the Void. It's a living entity... the king's letter said as much, too."

Sonic's eyes widened. "The king...? You found him?"

"Yeah. But we were too late..."

The hedgehog's head lowered. "Damn..."

"It wasn't in vain. I learned that the only way we can take Naugus down is by destroying the heart of the Void... that's his power source. But..." Tails stopped.

Marr took hold of his hand. "What is it, Miles?"

The vulpine shook his head, eyes closed. "Something's wrong... I can feel it."

Sonic gave him a punch in the shoulder, making his eyes snap open. "Hey, big guy... there's no time for doubting now. We've got a job to do. If we botch this, Mobius is toast."

Tails nodded, and took a deep breath. "Right."

They approached the mouth of the cavern of blue with a great degree of trepidation. The very walls seemed to eye them with malignancy, as they stepped out of the rain and into the deep shadows.

Sonic and Tails both eyed the architecture around them closely; the crystal was that same familiar stone they'd witnessed in the Void on their own separate occasions, but there was something different about it all now. The cold blue stone glowed from the inside, threaded throughout with veins of deep, glowing red. And despite the light emanating from it, the place was deathly cold.

From somewhere inside, they could hear the empty howling of an ethereal wind, mixed in with a choir of distant, tortured moaning.

"Man..." Sonic spoke as they crept deeper into the caves. "This place makes Robotropolis look like a fun park. What's with all these villains trying to make their homes as un-homely as they can?"

"This place is alive..." Marr whispered. "That's blood running through these stones. I can feel the aura of this place... it's grown itself, out of millions of conquered souls. The sheer misery here seems to be altering the very architecture it exists in. Everything about this place repulses me."

Tails put a hand on her shoulder. "You can back out of this if you want..." Marr shook her head, and began pacing faster.

_Shhhreeeiiik! The quiet moans, that seemed to be coming from the bowels of the earth, suddenly bolstered themselves to a wailing crescendo, stopping all three of them cold. _

"Miles!" Marr shouted, spying a shape of ... something, suddenly come flying from seemingly nowhere, straight at Tails. The fox whirled his head and ducked with a gasp, but the thing corrected its path, making their ears ring with an otherworldly scream.

It passed right through his body and out the other side, then disappeared again inside the opposite wall. The rumbling around them dropped back to its quiet growl.

Tails clutched at his stomach, eyes wide, taking deep breaths. But he didn't feel anything else wrong, apart from the chills the event had sent through him.

"Tails?" Sonic was already at his side, checking over his body for injuries. "What on Mobius just jumped out at you? You okay?"

The kitsune nodded. "Just spooked me... I'm alright. I... don't think this place likes us much."

"Yeah, well... I'm not liking it much either. As soon as we dust Naugus, we're leveling this joint too."

Tails stared at the grime-covered ground, as he slowly began to right himself. He could feel, as well as see, something was wrong in the place around them. He looked about himself as he rose to a stand again. The craggy granite of the crystal around them was beginning to morph somehow, the patterns beginning to swell and pulse with a different kind of pattern.

He saw a twisted collage of morose faces among the rock patterns.

"_COME CLOSER..._" he heard a voice hissing, but it wasn't from the distance. It was right inside his head. A monotone, serpentine mass of voices. "_MILES..._"

Tails whirled around at Marr, eyes wide. "Did you hear that?"

The lynx' face took on a look of deep concern. "Hear what?"

"Something in this place... it's calling for me. It wants me to go further in."

"Gods..." Marr stepped up to him, wrapping her arms around him. "Miles, I'm afraid..."

"So am I..." he whispered, but then distanced himself for her, resting his hands on her arms. "But we don't quit. Too much is stake. Okay?"

Marr swallowed, and nodded.

The caverns seemed to twist and pulse organically as they ventured further in. Sonic was surprised to note that despite the size of the mountain, they were heading down, instead of up. And the deeper they went, the darker it was getting. The cold blue of the crystal began to die away as they ventured down, until only the glowing red of the veined rock lit the walls. Candles had been lit and placed upon the ground periodically in places too, making their shadows flicker eerily as they walked by them. Every now and then, Sonic could've sworn he saw faces staring at him from amongst the rock formations out the corner of his eye, but as soon as he'd turn to face them, they were gone.

With their collective fear at a fever pitch, they crept deeper down.

But soon, the cavern emptied out to a massive chamber.

"What in the name..." Sonic breathed. The statement seemed wholly inadequate to him as he spoke it, but nothing could describe the feeling that overcame him as he entered the chamber.

They found themselves standing on an elevated platform, the stone of it covered from side to side with carved runes. Marr studied them as they walked over them, and thought she'd recognised them somewhere, but she could only guess at their meaning. Looking up, the chamber seemed to stretch up forever... higher, she noted, than the mountain could possibly have been from the outside. Somewhere, at the top, she saw a pulsing red light, its caustics shimmering off the crystal walls with a malevolent gloom.

And peering over the side of that platform upon which they stood, she saw nothing but endless dark. But the way the light had so suddenly given way to the darkness down there, gave her the impression that that inky black was somehow material. The feel of the place, this far in, was so tenebrous and mournful that it was making her physically sick.

At her side, Sonic wasn't faring much better, truth be told. He thought he'd seen horror in Robotnik's roboticization plants. He thought he'd seen horror in the form of the biomechanical nightmares that Ariel had turned the Wolfpack into. But in here... the chill he got not from what he saw, but what he could sense just beyond his logical grasping, filled him with a quiet terror he'd never felt before. He wanted, more than anything, to be back outside in that pouring rain.

A long, velvet walkway stretched on before the three of them, lined at each side with dozens of burning black candles, and skulls of shapes and varieties none of them could pick out. In the middle of the path, was an enormous steel goblet, engraved with more of the runes they'd seen before, and steaming with a boiling, deep red liquid.

And finally, at the end of that twisted path, sat a raised dais, upon it resting a throne carved of that wretched veined crystal.

"This must be Naugus' throne room..." Tails said quietly.

"Right..." Sonic nodded, as he began to approach the throne. "But we're short one Naugus..."

"THAT'S RIGHT..." a voice boomed from the pulsing red above them. "THERE'S NOTHING FOR YOU ALL HERE. NOTHING BUT ENDLESS SUFFERING..."

"Heard that before... so?" Sonic screamed, looking straight up. "Just where are you at, then, huh? Why don't you show yourself instead of hiding behind the curtains like a puss?"

"HAH..." the voice growled back, making the ground beneath them vibrate. "BUT I'M LIKING THIS SO MUCH BETTER. TELL ME, HEDGEHOG, REMEMBER ALL THOSE FRIENDS OF YOURS YOU LEFT BEHIND AT THE CANNON?"

Sonic's stomach began to churn again.

"NO ANSWER? PERHAPS YOU JUST FORGOT THEM. BUT YOU'LL REMEMBER SOON ENOUGH, WHEN I'VE SPLAYED THE WALLS OF MY SANCTUM WITH THEIR GUTS. ALONG WITH YOURS."

The hedgehog recoiled with horror, realising what he'd done. "Oh no..."

"THAT'S RIGHT... RODENT. I'M ON MY WAY RIGHT NOW TO FINISH THEM ALL. AND YOU'VE LEFT THEM ALL TO DIE. JUST LIKE YOU LEFT YOUR BELOVED PRINCESS..."

Now was Tails' turn to answer. "How're you gonna do that, when we've about to cut off your lifeline? I know what's making you tick. And I'm going to destroy it! Along with you!"

"FINE. IF YOU THINK YOU CAN EVER FIND IT. BUT KNOW THIS, FOXBOY. THE HEART ISN'T THERE. IT'S SAFELY HIDDEN WHERE NO ONE WILL REACH IT. AND NOW, I BID YOU ALL FAREWELL. ENJOY YOUR DEATHS, AND PRAY THAT DEATH... IS ALL YOU MUST ENDURE."

"Miles?" Marr whispered. "What's going to happen?"

"Damn it!" Tails roared, driving his fist into the cold stone at his feet, splitting it. "I knew it... I knew Naugus wouldn't have it here..."

"Uh, guys..." Sonic started, looking towards the swirling red pool at the center of the room. "I think it's a little late to be kicking ourselves now. We've got other things to worry about..."

Tails and Marr looked on, past Sonic.

The boiling blood in the basin was starting to seethe and froth violently, spilling its foul contents across the floor...

...until amongst that carnage, they saw a figure beginning to rise.

Sonic spoke quietly. "The door. Run."

Tails scooped Marr up in his arms, and then the three of them gunned it toward the entrance from which they came.

And smacked straight into it. Where the doorway to the caverns had been, only more of that accursed veined rock stood in its place.

Marr jumped out of Tails' arms, and searched the walls desperately for anything resembling a hidden panel, but she was unsuccessful. She whirled around to face the blood basin at the center of the platform. "We're trapped..."

"Any plans, big guy?" Sonic looked to Tails.

Tails looked to the figure at the center of the room, dripping with red. It had finally emerged from the basin completely, and stepped out onto the velvet. It was a pulsing, throbbing abomination on two legs; a crude, ancient Mobian animal skeleton, its limbs coated with the bubbling red liquid. As it stepped away further from the basin which had spawned it, the blood that hovered around its bones seemed to congeal, and then began to transform to a deep red kind of rock.

The vulpine's mind and heart raced, as he stared on. Behind that golem of sorts, another was already beginning to form within the bubbling basin.

"_MILESSSS..._" he heard that damnable voice from before, whispering in his ear. "_YOU MUST MEET WITH ME... THE VOID..._"

Tails blinked. "Sonic, Marr..."

They both glanced at him, faces long.

"I'm going to open a portal to the Void. I need you to hold those... things off, while I'm working. Okay?"

Sonic nodded, and looked to Marr. "How are you at fighting?"

Marr didn't respond to him, but raised a hand, clicked her fingers. A spark of electricity crackled between her fingertips.

The hedgehog raised his brows with approval. "Cool." He nodded back to Tails. "We've got it covered, big guy. Do your stuff. And do it quick."

Tails went into a kneel, eyes shut tightly, his body beginning to glow as Marr had seen back at the Sanctuary.

Marr turned from him to the approaching blood golem, and swept her hand forth in a wide arc. A bolt of bright lightning shot forth and went straight into the creature's body. The arc struck the thing in spectacular fashion, shattering its stony red flesh, reducing it to nothing but a pile of crumbling bones. But beyond, three more emerged from the basin, dragging their feet slowly towards them. And more were following.

Sonic revved up his legs and charged headlong at the closest one. He launched himself into the air, going into a super-spin, and struck down at it with all of his momentum. The impact split the creature in two, but Sonic had to quickly roll out of the way to avoid a swing that one of the other golems was taking at him. He jumped back quickly, and landed steadily on his feet, a few meters away from the quickly growing mass of golems.

He turned around, only to see another one right upon him, that had got around somehow – and its fist was already raised high, ready to pound his skull in --

Until the body of it disintegrated, and only charred bone fell upon his body, crackling with the electric fallout from Marr's second attack. He shot her a thankful smile, and turned to charge in again.

Tails, meanwhile, could only pay a brief slither of attention to the chaos erupting around him. The sense of impending danger threatened to break his concentration and botch the spell, but he forced himself to shut out his senses and concentrate completely on his work. His body tensed up, glowing white hot with ethereal power.

The horde of golems was growing, and growing quicker than Sonic and Marr could ever hope to dispatch them. But they fought as savagely as they could anyway, in the hopes that their efforts would delay the golems' attacks long enough to let Tails complete his spell.

Sonic screamed his way into another mass, blasting them into a thousand pieces with his spinning, but was surprised to see they were no longer trying to deal with him. Instead, they were trudging on right past, making a beeline for Tails.

"Marr!" he shouted. "Get closer to Tails! They're after him!"

The lynx nodded, and destroyed two more with two more arcs of deadly lightning, fired from each of her hands. She began backpedaling, and stopped when she could feel the intense heat coming from Tails' body behind her.

Sonic reached into his backpack, and took hold of the power ring that Tails had given him back in Knothole. Feeling the power of the ring wreathing his body as it took effect, Sonic leaped into the air. He curled up into a ball, and began hammering down at the approaching golems one after the other, in an elegant ballet of sheer destruction. Coupled with Marr's continuous arcs of lightning, they were finally beginning to drive the horde back.

Then, the ring's power ran out.

Sonic felt his momentum diminish in mid-air, and fell clumsily amidst the marching crowd. Stumbling to his feet, he went into a super-spin again, and burst out of it, skidding to a halt near Marr and taking out a dozen more golems on the way.

They'd held the horde back from Tails for a good ten minutes now, but they were starting to tire. And the crowd just was getting bigger. Sonic and Marr looked at each other, and turned to the golems again, ready for their last round before they'd be crushed under the stampede.

But now, Marr felt a prickling heat at her back. She turned around, and saw Tails raise to his feet, now surrounded by a blinding white light. With an earth-shattering scream, he released his conjured-up energies, sending out a shockwave that tossed everyone in the room high into the air. Hundreds of the golems were simply thrown back like rag dolls from the blast, sailing over the edge of the chamber platform and into the black abyss. Sonic followed with them, but caught desperately onto the edge and hauled himself back on.

Marr rose to her feet, and saw the Void portal open, swirling with its patterns of purple and yellow. The sound of rushing wind and raging electricity in the air vibrated throughout every inch of her body.

"It's open! Go! Now!" she heard Tails screaming, and she quickly ran in. Sonic was already running towards it, and catapulted himself in with a final leap.

--

And within seconds, the mayhem that was erupting around them was gone. The were thrown out the other end of the portal and landed in a heap, and for a moment, they weren't bothered to get up again.

"Hey..." Sonic spoke between gasping breaths. "Who's alive?"

"Me." he heard Tails responding.

Marr piped up too, voice strained: "Me too."

"Man..." Sonic sat up, shaking his head free of the disorientation their trip through the portal had brought upon him. "That was _way _too close of a call. Out of a lot of close calls..."

Tails was already getting to his feet. "We've got to keep moving. If Naugus still has his powers when he's reached the others, there won't be any contest. He'll crush them..."

Sonic got up too, and fell in with him. "Yeah... but where's this heart you've been talking about?"

The three of them took a look at their new surrounds: It was the Void, indeed, but this seemed to be a different section of it to what they'd seen before. They were standing on a ridge of the blue crystal, that rose out of a vast ocean of sparkling blue. At the end of the ridge, they saw a dark structure, built of dark grey brick instead of the blue that dominated everything else in this world. In a world so alien already, seeing the structure so out of place only served to further its curiousness.

"_THIS WAY..._" the damning, disembodied voice returned. But not only Tails heard it this time.

Marr recoiled visibly at hearing it. "That's the voice that was speaking to you?" Tails just nodded.

"Well," Sonic said, gingerly starting off down the path. "Guess we know where we're going, then."

The ground beneath his feet began to rumble. And then threw him back, as a spire of the blue crystal erupted from it, shooting high into the air, spilling shards of the transparent rock into the air like chunks of hail.

"What'd I say?" Sonic asked nobody in particular, scratching behind his ear.

The newly formed chunk of rock stretched up above them, and out the sides of the ridge, all but blocking their path forward. Sonic strolled forward and drove his fist into it, noting the solidity of their new obstacle. "Great... now what? That's too high to get over... there's no run-up for me!"

"I can fly over that..." Tails said softly. "Whatever this thing is, it wants me. And me only. It's what told me to come to this place."

Marr swallowed hard. "And you're going to go? By yourself?"

He turned to her. "What other choice is there?" When he saw her eyes becoming glossy again, he came forward and pulled her into a tight hug again, kissing her forehead. "Don't worry. Just sit tight here with Sonic... I promise I'll be okay."

She squeezed him tightly, nodding. "Okay."

Sonic looked on gravely. "Seeya in a bit."

Tails flashed him a smile, and whirled up his namesakes. He leaped up, and in a minute or two, he'd scaled the cliff, and landed back upon the path. Rising immediately to his feet, he strode forward into the building before him.

--

After having spent so long under the ground, the sight of the sun was almost enough to bring tears to Bunnie's eyes.

She followed amongst the other Mobians around her from all around the continent, emerging from the tunnel they'd created to survey the remains of Adramalech around them. They were at ground zero; the sheer force of the cannon firing had been enough to open rifts in reinforced cement walls and dense canyon rock alike. The fallout from the island was even worse, with its massive fallout having collided with the earth and exploded in spectacular fashion, rendering much of the surrounding landscape unrecognizable.

Scars, Bunnie thought. Looking at the devastation that went on as far as she could see, it brought her the same feeling she had when she looked at her arm. Scars that wouldn't go away... not in her lifetime, at least.

Her attention turned outward when she saw Rotor striding past in the corner of her eye, talking into the radio she'd seen him with earlier. She broke into a quick jog to catch up with him.

"What's up, Rote?"

"I got in contact with Nicole earlier," he told her. "They got here a little while ago. Knuckles and Griff are with her."

Bunnie stopped. "And Sonic?"

"He..." Rotor swallowed. "...ran off to take on Naugus on his own. But as of when they last saw him, he was okay."

"Oh, boy... and Griff?"

"He's around somewhere, they said he split off to see if he could find some of his friends from the Underground Freedom Fighters."

As they began climbing up a soft incline, Bunnie felt herself shudder suddenly. A shadow had passed over her and gone again in an instant... but when she looked up to see what it was, her eyes found nothing but wispy clouds and harsh sun.

They reached the apex of the hill and looked down; Nicole and Knuckles were standing at the bottom of it. Without delay, she bolted down to greet them, throwing her arms out to catch both of them in a hug. Knuckles took the metal arm, and got the wind knocked out of him.

"You're okay!" Bunnie exclaimed.

"We have only minor injuries," Nicole nodded.

"We _did_, until you coathangered me." Knuckles growled. "So, you're not bitter at me anymore about your princess?"

Bunnie shook her head. "Never was, sugah. I'm just glad you came through. Y'all proved yourself to be a good Freedom Fighter in my eyes."

Rotor caught up with them. "So... what's next? We're still missing people."

"Yes..." Nicole agreed. "I suspect that Sonic is somewhat north of Knothole by now. We need to regroup with him. Is any transport available?"

"There's some vehicles underground, where we were hiding before." Rotor mentioned. "Getting them onto the surface will be a problem though, and I don't know how they'd handle this new terrain." he craned his head as he spoke, toward a road near them, covered in debris and rocked with giant craters.

"Has anyone heard from Tails in all this time?" Bunnie asked.

"Who's that?" Knuckles shot back.

"Sonic stated to me that Tails is most likely still in Mobius North," Nicole responded to Bunnie, with an obviously artificial nod.

Bunnie nodded back, slowly. "I really do hope he stayed there."

"Well," Rotor started, "We'd better get back to the hangar and see if we can get some transport out of there. We'd save a lot of time if we don't have to walk all the way back past Knothole..."

"Yeah, but I can't think of any way we'd be able to open up a way out of..." Bunnie started, then stopped suddenly, an ear pricking up.

Knuckles narrowed his eyes. "What?"

Nicole had heard it too. "Gunfire. Back at the cannon."

Bunnie and Nicole broke into a run instantly, doubling back for Adramalech. Rotor and Knuckles followed quickly, and caught up.

"What's going on?" Rotor asked, between his labored breaths. "What's there left to be shooting at?"

"I think I have some idea..." Knuckles growled. "And I think Sonic's going to be disappointed when he gets to Naugus' fortress."

"You mean...?"

"He must be already here..." Knuckles' face began to take on a strange smile.

They reached the crest of the hill again, and looked on. Naugus was hovering idly in the air, pouring molten death to all who stood in his way. The Mobians were aggressive in their attacks, but no bullet or beam of laser light seemed to quite make it to his shimmering frame.

Gradually, the gunfire began to thin out, as the Mobian troops decided it better to run for their lives than to take him on directly. Naugus was just as gleeful in his pursuit of them as he was graceful; pinning one troop to the ground with his free arm, shooting crystal spikes with the other to nail others to the walls.

"Oh, gods..." Rotor breathed. "What can we do?"

"Hide," Knuckles said, flatly. "And hope he doesn't find you." Then he began striding forward, toward the chaos below.

"Knuckles!" Bunnie called out. He paid her no heed. Something snapped in her head, as she realised what Knuckles was about to do; she took Rotor and Nicole by the hands and began running away as fast as she could.

--

In the dim light, Tails saw that the building was a shaft, that went deeper still into the darkness. The cold stone around him was lit periodically with engraved, eldritch runes that glowed a ghostly white, providing the only illumination in the dank space. A staircase spiraled all the way down the deep shaft.

As he began to descend, the quiet sense of terror inside him grew deeper still, snaking its way among his ribs, creeping up the back of his throat, ensnaring his throbbing heart. He knew, as he listened absently to his own footsteps echoing throughout the great shaft, that he'd never return from this place quite the same. He knew it had been the Void speaking to him, luring him to this place. Some intrinsic, unseen touch was at his back every step of the way, gently pushing him forward, despite the intense dread that begged every self-preserving instinct to run, and get as far away from this forsaken place as he possibly could.

He opened his hand, palm up, and willed a small ball of flame to ignite in it. The defiant flicker in his hand bathed the hard stone around him in gold, desperately fending off the darkness that threatened to swallow him.

Tails hit the bottom of the stairwell, and stepped into something wet. A deep, cavernous tunnel stretched before him, and the cold stone gave way to something all the more sinister – a pulsing, sweating kind of pulpy, veined flesh. Fighting the urge to gag, Tails pressed on, against all instinct and logic, and found himself wading through that tunnel of viscera, his feet sloshing through the thick liquid that surrounded him. What it was, he couldn't fathom; nor did he even want to guess at its putrid contents.

The tunnel gave way to a narrow cavern, and it was when he looked up, that he finally saw it.

Suspended in the air, hanging from a network of swollen tendrils, was the obsidian monstrosity, the heart of the Void. It was a dripping, pumping, obsidian mass of shiny tissue... and if corruption could take a physical form, Tails thought, this would be it.

"So..." he said aloud, as he approached. "This is it..."

"It would seem so," the heart spoke back, directly into his mind. "Are you curious, Miles? Are you afraid?"

Tails inclined his head. "I'd be a liar if I said no... but I feel you somehow already know that."

Something began to seep out of the heart, and into the swirling liquid below; a kind of dense, black mist. It wafted lazily through the air, and began to take a solid shape.

The kitsune took a good few steps back, gasping in horror.

Before him, the mist flew away, and beneath it, stood an almost identical copy of him. But it stood taller than he; more muscular, more powerful. His eyes glowered blue, suggesting Tails' own innocent glance, but only as a facade; Tails could feel the burning hatred behind it, even if he couldn't see it.

"What are you?" he whispered.

The twisted mockery of his own form threw his arms out: "What does it look like? I'm you!" It took a step forward. "I am Xul. The Void. I am you, as you could be."

Tails' eyes narrowed. His fist began to itch, and he was plenty eager to stop the conversation right here and toss the fireball he held in his hand straight at the heart.

But as soon as the thought of that entered his mind, the fire flickered out.

The specter waved a finger in the air. "Uh-uh. We'll not have that here. I hold dominion in this place... we play by my rules."

"How can this be? How can you be here? Naugus needs you on Mobius to function..."

"We _are _on Mobius, my friend..." Xul clasped his hands behind his back. "To be specific, we're a good few hundred miles beneath the surface of Mobius. Slowly, but surely, Mobius and the Void are growing to be more and more the same.

"I have existed for more millenia than one would care to count. The Void was once a planet, just like Mobius... I grow with it, traveling across the ages, across dimensions, subverting all life that I find to take on my own form. The Void assimilates everything it touches. The power I hold, is so immense, so far-reaching, it'd take you a lifetime before you could even begin to comprehend."

Tails cracked his neck, taking a slow breath. "What is it that you want from me?"

Xul smiled. "I need a host. To continue to exist, I need an avatar to conquer the places I travel to... to channel my energies through..."

"You have Naugus for that."

"Naugus is inferior to you." the fox's smile broadened, the glint of blue in his eyes intensifying. "Far inferior. Tell me Miles, did you ever find out what became of your family?"

Tails' eyes widened. "Wh...what?"

"Kitsune have always been the outcasts of Mobius. The freaks. The ones that were too different, too dangerous, to fit in with the rest of society. Your natural affinity for the harnessing of the supernatural and the magical is the stuff of legend! Under the order of the royal Mobotropilan crown, kitsune have been hunted and destroyed throughout the ages. There was another planet I took once, where the same thing happened. Only there, they were called 'witches'.

"And that, is why you've never seen another of your kind. Why do you think your family were living so far out, hidden in the Great Forest? Did you really think they adopted that lifestyle by choice?"

Miles "Tails" Prower could do nothing but stare.

"You, Miles. You alone have more potential in you than any other living creature upon the planet. You think you saw power in Naugus when he visited you in the Sanctuary of the Brotherhood? Even then, with my blessing... he saw something in you that had actually convinced him to flee!

"And lastly... you... are alone, Miles. Just like me. The last. The kitsune race faces total extinction. Your little Mobian friends killed your family! Them, and their sham of a society!" Xul finished the monologue with a grin, cracking his knuckles.

Tails' eyes narrowed further, to slits. "No... it can't be true."

"Have they ever given you any other explanation? Sonic probably knows about the systematic massacre of the kitsune kind. It's been quite well-documented. Sally _definitely _knew. Her father was all to eager to condone it while he was enjoying his early years as king, until the Mobian society at large was finally convinced they'd won their little war. Miles...

"These friends of yours... they're hiding it. They are the ones responsible. Why do you want to defend them?"

Tails stood defiant. "They found me. They raised me. I exist as I do today, because of them."

"You exist as you do because of your _blood!_" Xul swiped his hand forth and brought it into a clenched fist, eyeing his double with a dark passion. "All the great things in you, were passed down through your parents. You know now, with your powers, you could take them all on at once, and you'd still win. Naugus is nothing compared to what you could be... you haven't even _begun_ to tap into your full potential! And, not to forget..." the ghost whistled absently, "If you really even are stupid enough to care a jot for your 'friends', they are minutes away from death. Naugus is already at Adramalech and he will slaughter them without mercy. I will withdraw my blessing from him, but only if you will allow me to pass it onto you."

The kitsune grimaced. He clenched a fist, trying to channel his energies into one defiant strike, but they didn't come. He felt frozen, helpless here. His eyes fell dark, obscured by the shadows and by his long locks of hair.

There was a long silence.

"Okay," he said.

Xul took another step forward, and held a hand outstretched. Dragging his heart behind him, Tails stepped over, and, looking away, took it.

His eyes widened at what happened next; the apparition disappeared _into _Tails' hand, driving him back a few steps. The obsidian heart above him began to beat all the more faster, and Tails began to feel something terrible stirring inside his mind.

Then, it hit him: A thousand lifetimes of torment filled his every limb, screaming through his veins. His heart began pumping like a machine gun. Every thought, every feeling, suddenly ceased to be. He could feel his blood turn black. The sensation was so intense, so enrapturing, that for all of his will and all his might, he was a slave to its desires. The oily walls that surrounded him began to peel away, and bright flashes of light, of indescribable colour, began to spill forth until they overcame his senses.

--

Knuckles stood at the crest of the hill, defiant and alone. It went against his nature to do so, but he did it anyway; usually, he would have had some ounce of control, his self-preservation instinct should've kicked in and urged him to stay as far away as possible, especially so after his last attempt at besting the demon sorcerer.

But the mere sight of the figure now made something in his mind snap. After what this creature had done to his home and his people, what Naugus was about to repeat on his newfound friends... what was there left to lose? And what did it matter if he were to give his own life for their sakes, even if it was entirely in vain?

"Naugus!" he shouted.

The thing turned its attention to him from the fleeing troops, and snorted in recognition of him. Knuckles had little doubt in his mind that he was the last of those whose feud with the beast was personal.

Naugus said nothing, but the echidna saw his blood-red eyes narrowing, and a trickle of an evil smirk growing upon the cracked skin of his twisted visage.

"You won't win against us," Knuckles said. Everyone else had cleared the area, but he knew they were watching from the shadows, cowering, trying to stay out of Naugus' sight. His voice rang through the shattered ruins around him.

The demon sneered at him, quite visibly amused. "Your attitude is very cute, little echidna. Defiant till the end. But I think we... all of us..." He turned around and raised his arms, addressing those that he knew were listening from the shadows. "We all know, that the end is soon upon you. Your efforts have been remarkable. Your brought down Robotnik, thereby saving me a great deal of work. But I've no use for you anymore."

"Then what?" Knuckles shouted back. "What happens when you've laid waste to every living thing on the planet? All you have is a trophy. A big, empty, dead trophy."

"Oh, no... I don't think you realise the full scope of my ambitions, errand boy." Naugus told him with a mocking cackle. "Mobius may be the be-all-end-all of what you know... but it's just the tip of the iceberg for me. What I have in Mobius... is a starting point. My plan goes far beyond planets, boy... don't you ever look to the stars at night, and wonder what lies beyond this little speck in that spectrum? More planets... galaxies, universes, entire realities! All perfectly ripe for the picking. And in time, I could rule it all, with the help of the Void!"

He began striding towards Knuckles, the earth shaking beneath his heels. "Today marks the first day of my conquest. You should be honoured, Knuckles, that it begins with your death."

He raised his hand high above his head and opened his palm, and perched above it Knuckles witnessed a rotating ball of blue spikes beginning to form. He didn't budge.

Naugus brought his hand down in a clenched fist. "Ha!"

The globe shot out at terrifying speed, but Knuckles had prepared himself for it. He dodged out of the way and brought himself into a roll, sprang off a nearby piece of rubble and leaped straight back at Naugus' face, sharpened barbs on his fists extended.

The demon's claw arm shot out and swatted him like a fly. His body slammed into the ground, limp and wheezing, wondering for a moment what had hit him.

"Nice try," Naugus grinned, bringing his fist up again to conjure another ball of deadly crystal. "But there's no second chances in this game. If there's a hell, I'll see you there!"

Lying on her belly upon a hill, Bunnie watched the spectacle, he stomach winding up.

Naugus brought his hand down again, ready to smash the prone echidna into a thousand bloody pieces.

Nothing came.

Knuckles opened his eyes and looked at the sorcerer, his eyes wide with surprise. "What the?"

Naugus' face started to show signs of strain. "What's happening? Xul!"

The bulging muscles in the demon's body were starting to shrivel up, the giant wings on his back peeling away to the bone. In a series of sickening crackles, the beast was starting to recede back to his old form.

Incredulous, Knuckles slowly got to his feet, and backed away. Looking to both his sides, he saw the remaining freedom fighters who'd fled before starting to come back out of their cover, guns raised at the crippled demon.

"Guess the Void got bored with you," Knuckles remarked. Slowly, symbolically, he raised his hand into the air, and the freedom fighters began to form a tight semi-circle around the floundering Naugus.

"No!" Naugus squawked pathetically between strained wheezes. "This isn't happening!"

Knuckles' hand dropped. "Fire!"

The last of the troops' gunshots rang out, and then the silence erupted with cheers of victory.

And before Knuckles realised what was going on, the rest of the Freedom Fighters had run out toward him, and he found himself hoisted upon the shoulders of the cheering crowd. Amid his confusion, he managed a smile.

The war was over.

--

Tails wondered for a moment, if he was alive or dead. He tried to remember what the last things he said to Marr and Sonic were. He couldn't, as much as he tried. He couldn't think. But he could sense something against his face. Rain.

He opened his eyes and stared up. The dark storm clouds stared back at him. He remembered the way they'd looked back at him when he was little, but now they seemed to have a different kind of leer. Like they were looking at someone else...

When he raised his head to see Sonic and Marr getting to their feet, dazed and at a loss of how they'd managed to return to the surface, safe and sound, he didn't feel relief.

"Miles!" Marr shrieked, running over to help him to his feet, and then burying her face in his chest.

He only felt... annoyance.

And he realised that not all was well. He'd made a bargain with Xul, and he was starting to pay the price. Every impulse screamed at the two 'friends' of his with hatred. They were no longer friends. They were obstacles. Or perhaps potential slaves, he hadn't decided yet.

But somehow, his mind fought back. _No, that's not true. You know it's not..._

He knew they were his friends, and yet he had only the compulsion to destroy them. The Void was in his blood now, and it was the Void's will that was taking control of his body... and then, he remembered something. It was desperate, and there'd be no way of going back. But he could see no alternative.

Fighting every urge to just give into the hatred and let himself carry out the very same atrocities he'd just prevented Naugus from doing, he reached into his pocket with a trembling hand and pulled out something he'd forgotten about until now – Lazar's spell computer.

He dropped it, but it didn't fall. Instead, it dropped a little and began hovering in the air, uprighting itself. "Spell codex active. Specify spell."

Tails cleared his throat, pushing Marr off of him. "Incinerate."

"Incinerate spell selected. Specify target."

The kitsune lowered his head. "Me."

"Wait... no!" Marr urged. "Miles, what's wrong? Talk to me!"

"Confirm?" the codex asked, innocent in its monotone voice.

Marr snatched it out of the air and threw it into the dirt. "Cancel!"

"Canceled."

Tails looked up at her with urgency. "You idiot! Do you realise what you've done?"

"I just stopped you from killing yourself!"she shouted back.

"You have just sealed the doom of your world! The Void is inside me! I can't control it any longer..." Tails sank to his knees ripped off his gloves and started clawing at his face. "You're all going to die. I'm going to kill everyone."

Marr was taken aback. "Please, stay with us!"

Sonic joined them with his newly regained consciousness. "Tails! Fight it man!"

Tails began to crack up. His whole body had started to convulse, but his eyes darted up to look straight at Sonic. "Why? Why fight it? It's so much easier to just let it go... besides, you know what you all did to my kind... and you never told me? Why?"

The hedgehog looked at him with dumbfounded confusion. "Hey, slow down big guy... what are you saying?"

"You!" he pointed. "Your kind! You mobians... you know I'm not one of you! You murdered all of us!"

"I don't have a clue what you're on about, bro... we're your friends, remember?" Sonic said slowly. And Tails could see he was telling the truth, but in his mind that seemed like no reason to be deterred.

"You're not my friends..." Tails spat. "You know what you've done. You're just in my way now. I see that now... you and your kind... you make me sick! Why didn't I see this before... I feel dirty..."

Tails' muscles were starting to convulse unnaturally, his fur retracting to expose crackling skin, his veins bulging out horrifically. He sank further to the ground, starting to cackle maniacally.

Sonic picked up the spell computer, slapped it with his other hand, and tossed it into the air. Like before, it hovered there. "Spell codex active. Specify spell."

"Exorcise!" Sonic said, not even sure if such a spell existed.

"Specify target."

"That won't work," Marr said, shaking her head. "It's powerful, but it's not enough to free him from something like the Void's influence."

"You got any better ideas?" Sonic shot back at her. "Miles Prower! Rip that sucker out now!"

"Confi--" the codex began, but then it processed Sonic's additional command and began working immediately. It thrummed to life, glowing brilliantly. From the lens in the side of the cylindrical device, it shot out a magnificent vortex that enveloped the kitsune from head to toe. Bits of black began to seep from Tails' body and back into the device, seemingly trying to claw their way through the air back to their host. It was a surreal sight, even after all that Sonic had seen lately.

"It's working?" he asked Marr.

"Amazingly, yes!" she gasped. "But you can encourage it. It feeds on our emotional energies... that's what comprises the essence of magic. You need to let go of your own energies to help it!"

"How!?"

"Just... let go..." Marr said softly, watching the device working. "Say everything you feel, say it any way you can..."

"Uh..." Sonic looked like his eyes were bugging out at that, but it only took him a moment to concede.

Tails was lying prone on the ground, the vortex swirling over his twitching body.

"Tails..." the hedgehog said softly. "Come back to me bro, please... I've lost so much already, after all we've been through... please..."

"Miles..." Marr joined him. "I know you're in there... I know you're fighting... and you can win this! And you will... I know you will... because that's what I want... that's what we all want."

The kitsune arched his back in silent agony, more streaks of black slowly peeling away from his flesh. Patches of hair started to grow back in places.

The lynx knelt next to him, and took his hand in hers. "And I feel I could no longer be without you... after what we've been through lately together... I've learned more in the last few months than I have in my whole life. I've learned about myself... learned what really matters."

She bowed her head and kissed Tails on the forehead. She ran a hand through the fur of his cheeks, feeling the damp upon them from a mix of the rain and now, her own tears.

"I don't know what came before, or what happens next, but I..." She sniffed. "I love you, Miles. This sounds so funny for me to say, but it's true. I love you..."

"So do I," Sonic added. "We all do."

The spell codex shone brighter than ever, and then like a crack of lightning, the last of that inky blackness was sucked from Tails' body and into the codex' eye. The device let out a high-pitched beep, and fell to the ground.

Tails slowly opened his eyes, his breathing faint, and saw Marr's eyes looking back.

"Miles?" she whispered.

The fox smiled. "Mhm."

She picked him up in her arms and held him as tightly as she could, sobbing harder than she could remember having ever done in her life, even more so than when the war had taken her family away from her so many years ago.

Sonic knelt down and patted Tails on the cheek. "Welcome back, kiddo."

"Thanks..." Tails grinned back, still catching his breath.

There was just one thing left.

Sonic got to his feet and picked up the codex laying on the ground. He looked at it curiously. "So, now what do we do with this thing?"

"Something that should've been done a long time ago," Tails told him. "Smash it to pieces."

"Sounds good to me," Sonic shrugged. He searched about himself for something good to use, and settled on a decent-sized boulder. Carefully setting the codex upon the ground, he raised the rock above his head and threw it down with all the strength he could muster.

The effect was unremarkable, but profound. The device shattered and splintered in a shower of debris. Sonic couldn't see it, but he knew that in that final act, all the thousands, millions of souls that had been condemned to suffer within the Void for so long, were now finally free to rest.

Tails slowly got to his feet, and clapped Sonic on the back. "Nice one."

Sonic couldn't help but laugh at the irony, that such a significant event had culminated with such little fanfare. "Well... that was one of the less spectacular endings I've witnessed. So, what now?"

"I dunno," Tails shrugged. "Go home, I guess. Rebuild, live life in peace and harmony, you know how it goes."

"Funnily enough," Sonic mused, looking to the parting clouds in the sky, "after all this time fighting, I can't say that I do. But I guess I could start off with a chilli-dog."


	10. Epilogue: The Learning

**EPILOGUE – THE LEARNING**

Sometimes Sonic wondered if the world really did listen to their whims. It was a clear, sunny midday in the clearing in Knothole, after all the previous weeks of atrocious weather. The remaining Freedom Fighters had assembled in the clearing with him, to pay their respects to their fallen comrades and loved ones, and for an announcement on their future as a society.

He could hear birds chirping, and silently thanked them for gracing them all with their presence. He was surprised to even hear them at all, after all that had happened. Knothole was still in ruins, but over the past month the Freedom Fighters had gradually restored it to an at least inhabitable state.

On a podium in front of the crowd, he was watching and half-listening to Antone addressing the crowd with an introductory speech. He looked down at his sneakers and chuckled quietly; they couldn't have picked anyone worse to be MC for something like this.

"...and today, is the day that we ack...ackner... acknowledge? Yes, acknowledge, our continued existence after all zese... sorry, these years of hardship. We may mourn for our lost loved ones, but moreover, we celebrate the beginning of a new age, one of peace and tranquility everlasting! Today is the day that we may relinquish our titles as Freedom Fighters, for freedom is the very thing we have now won back!"

Antoine smiled, looking over the crowd as they erupted into applause.

He waited for a moment until the fanfare died down, and finished off, "And now, it is time to make another announcement; we have carefully discussed among ourselves whom should be the one to lead us in this new age, after the passing of our beloved Princess Sally. Each of us standing here today is a hero in his or her own right... but if there is one that has the respect of each and every one of us... even mine..." Antoine laughed, "...if there is one that is truly the icon that represents us all, it is... Sonic tze Hedgehog."

Sonic's eyebrows raised, and he watched every head in the crowd around turn to look at him with warm smiles.

"Sonic..." Antoine called out from his podium. "Will you be our new king?"

The hedgehog couldn't help but laugh, and it only took him a second to decide. Slowly, casually, he made his way through the crowd to stand beside Antoine on the podium. "Nah. Sorry."

"Eh... _ce?" _Antoine responded, his eyes widening. "Why not?"

"Well..." Sonic said, looking out to the crowd. "I'm really flattered, everyone, I really am. But I'm no king. I'm used to 'Hero' being my job description, and if I can, I'd like to stick to it."

"Very well..." the coyote said back, a little flustered. "As you wish. But, then, do you have anyone in mind that you would elect to rule?"

Sonic pondered to himself for a moment, paying no heed to those around him. "Yeah..." he finally said. "I do. I want Nicole to be our leader."

The crowd began murmuring amongst themselves.

"But Nicole's a computer!" someone shouted from the crowd.

"Android," someone else corrected.

"No, she's more than that." Sonic addressed them. "I've known Nicole since the coup. She's got the brain of a computer, but she's got more than that. I dunno how those eggheads did it, but she's got spunk. She's a character too. She's my friend." He bowed his head. "Nicole, you better get up here."

Nicole shuffled through the murmuring crowd and finally joined Sonic and Antoine on the podium.

"So..." Sonic grinned at her, "Whaddaya say?"

If an android ever could blush, Nicole found herself blushing. "I would be honoured."

The crowd once again erupted into a cheer.

"Praise to our new queen!" someone shouted.

"Praise to Nicole, Queen of Mobius!" someone else cheered, and the rest followed them.

"Great!" Antoine finally said, with some degree of relief. "So, Nicole, is there anything else you would like to say?"

"Not me, personally." Nicole said. "But there is a certain log entry from a certain princess recorded in case a day like this came to pass, that I would like to relate to you all."

--

Later that night, Sonic sat by the power ring pool, watching the moon perched in the sky, nestled among the stars that surrounded it. The words that Nicole had told them all that day, words that Sally had recorded, played themselves over and over in his head:

"_I don't know. Sometimes it feels like this war will never end. Even if it does, by some miracle, there's a different kind of war going on. It goes on in all of us. The struggle to just live against the day._

"_And that's a kind of war that doesn't end. Not until we're gone. But that's something that I like the idea of. If there's anything that this war has taught me, it's that there's always hope. To just appreciate what we have, and treasure it like it deserves. To all my friends that have helped me and looked to me, I love you all. You may look to me as a hero, but you are all my heroes, too._

"_I suppose, there's one worthy of special mention, too... if you never hear this directly from my lips, Sonic, you should know that I love you. And no matter where I am, I always will, and I'll always be there with you, wherever you are. Don't you dare give up, Sonic, don't any of you dare. You're all far to great and precious to do that._

"_Go to your loved ones. And love them like it's your last day to live. And remember that there's always hope. That's what I've learned. Never give up hope._

"_Sally."_

Sonic looked up to the stars, and remembered all those he'd seen smiling back at him earlier during the day. Bunnie, Rotor, Tails and Marr wrapped up in each others' arms and looking at him. Knuckles standing up the back of the crowd next to Lupe, the smile on his face ever so slight but undoubtedly genuine.

Remembered how later that day, Christof had shown up from Mobius North to discuss their future in relation to the soon-to-be reformed Mobotropolis. They'd arrived at an agreement easily; to unite under the one banner, and for all records of conflict on both sides to be destroyed. The slate was swept clean, once and for good.

He remembered too, all the times even he'd nearly given up, when it seemed like everything had fallen to pieces and there'd be no way he or anyone else would recover. But they did. And it wasn't by some miracle or divine intervention. They'd done it themselves. They were free. Because that was what they wanted.

"Sal, if you're listening..." Sonic spoke to the wind, to the trees, to the grass beneath his feet. "I suppose this is goodbye, for now. I'm gonna move on like all the others, and I'm gonna look forward to all the new things I'll do with what you gave me. And I'll make you proud, Sal."

Sonic got up, and started to walk home. "Just like you always have for me."


End file.
